Volkswagen, Take The Wheel

Volkswagen remains the biggest European car manufacturer with a market valuation of $103 billion according to data from Companies Market Cap. Despite losing around $40 billion in valuation when compared to November of 2021, it still managed to improve its lead on Mercedes-Benz by $10 billion, as our chart indicates.

According to its annual report, Volkswagen not only doubled its profit to $20 billion, it specifically improved in the e-mobility sector, becoming the primary electric vehicle supplier in Europe and number two in the U.S. behind Elon Musk's Tesla. While German-based Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW make up the top 3 of highest valuated car manufacturers in Europe, they are also able to compete on a global scale, ranking third, fifth and eight worldwide, respectively. The newest addition to this top list, Swedish automaker Volvo, went public in October of last year with an initial share price of 53 Swedish kronor or roughly $6.2, which rose by 22 percent by the end of its first day of trading. This can be seen as evidence for the rising interest in investing in EV technology since Volvo has pledged to become purely electric by 2030. Nevertheless, it's still far from being the most valuable company on the list with a market cap of $19.8 billion behind similarly established companies like Ferrari and Porsche.

According to the German trade organization Verband der Automobilindustrie e.V. (VDA), roughly 58 million passenger cars were sold in 2021, two million more than in the previous year. This development is indicative of a slight improvement in terms of the coronavirus pandemic impacting supply chains and production efficiency across the globe. As in the year prior, China came out on top as the biggest market with about 21 million car registrations in 2021, followed by the U.S. with approximately 15 million and Europe with roughly 12 million new passenger cars registered.