German auto giant Volkswagen Group has unveiled detailed plans to super charge its production of electric vehicles, in the latest sign of a global market that’s set to boom.
Speaking at the car maker’s annual media conference in Berlin, CEO Matthias Müller said the Group had secured battery supply partners in Europe and China, and planned to expand assembly of zero-emission cars to 16 plants globally through the end of 2022.
Müller said VW – which owns 12 auto brands including Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Seat, Skoda and Bugatti – would be launching a new electric car “virtually every month” starting in 2019.
This is expected to amount to around 80 new electric car and SUV models by 2025 – with a focus on VW, Porsche and Audi-badged cars. By 2030, Müller said that every one of VW’s 300 models would have an electric variant.
All told, he said, the company aimed to sell 3 million electric cars a year across the group by 2025.
“This is how we intend to offer the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the world, across all brands and regions, in just a few years,” Müller said.
“Over the last few months, we have pulled out all the stops to implement ‘Roadmap E’ (Volkswagen’s EV rollout plan) with the necessary speed and determination.”
Underscoring all of this ambition are the new contracts VW has inked with major battery makers LG Chem, Samsung, and China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology.
“Building up expertise and mastering the technology does not necessarily imply that we want to start large-scale assembly of batteries ourselves,” Müller said. “Others can do it better than we can.”
As Reuters reports, the plan will be costly – and comes on top of the billions of euros in costs and fines the company is paying for its “dieselgate” tailpipe emissions scandal.
Nevertheless, VW has pledged to spend €34 billion on EVs, autonomous driving and new mobility services by the end of 2022.
The news from VW follows the March 2 launch of the Jaguar Land Rover I-Pace – a luxury all-electric SUV to rival Tesla’s Model X, which is being made at JLR’s factory in Graz, Austria.
And it follows the January announcement from Mercedes Benz that it plans to build EVs in volume at six factories across three continents, supported by its own “global battery network.”
Mercedes parent company, Daimler, last year revealed plans to offer electric versions of all of its for Mercedes-Benz and smart car models by 2022.
Meanwhile, in the US, General Motors has called on the Trump administration to extend tax credits to incentivise EV uptake in America, as it ramps up plans to offer 20 all-electric models by 2023.
GM CEO Mary Barra said on Wednesday that the automaker aimed to boost production for its Chevy Bolt at a Michigan factory to meet growing global demand.
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
I don’t believe them. EVs are *still* not VW’s priority.
For comparison, their 2015-2019 investment plan had Euro 85.6 billion in investment expenditure.
Euro 34 billion sounds like a tremendous amount, but it’s actually a middling investment from the world’s largest carmaker.
Oh, and “we’ll have an electric version of every vehicle by 2030” is not ambitious either. It’s much slower than Volvo, for example – who don’t have a forced settlement and a ruined reputation to repair.
It suggests that they intend to squeeze as much life out of every engine and platform they own.
All just talk and hype…meanwhile buy a Tesla of Leaf..
Well there is already an all electric Golf although it seems not In Australia. Then again the Tesla and Leaf are hardly here yet
I was looking to replace my three year old i3 some time next year. It looks like if I can keep it another 12 months I may have a real choice of new vehicle.
In 12 months your options in Australia will likely be:
– Renault Zoe
– Nissan Leaf (next gen)
– Hyundai Ioniq
– Hyundai Kona EV
– Jaguar i-Pace
– Tesla Model 3 (maybe not 12 months.. but close)
In addition to the Model S and X. I haven’t even included PHEVs on this list either!
Just exchange your i3 for a newer one – the 44kWh v3.0 should be out by then.
correct me if i’m wrong but i could have sworn these were the same folks cheating on emissions tests…
…we all fear a VW ‘EVgate’ affair..
i cant tell if you’re being sarcastic or not. i just suspect the company that didn’t care about the environment not long ago still doesn’t really, and EV production has the potential to be environmentally damaging too if not done responsibly (although obviously less bad than ICE’s) lithium must be responsibly mined and i understand that cobalt is used for lithium batteries too and there is ever increasing worry about the cobalt being sourced from areas of conflict. (again, correct me if i’m wrong)
It was a sarcastic comment,driving ( pun intended), at the contempt with which VW has treated us all over their ‘dieselgate’ scam. You can no longer trust these cowboys.
“launching…starting…2019” We all know they’ll start with the lowest-volume models. If the model which would suit you is 48th in the one-a-month queue, you’ll still be waiting 5-odd years. I’m so tired of carmakers begging us not to buy a Tesla or a Leaf now because, allegedly, they have something great coming in the future.
Or they sell an electric version of their best-seller. But they only offer a few thousand vehicles each year, because they lose money on every one.
It’s infuriating that these manufacturers refuse to develop high-volume profitable electric vehicles. They all think they can be successful followers.
Yes, it would require investment. But the alternative is that they fall behind and lose out to those who will.
Read as new cars in 5 years, ten for australia.
Ex-Volkswagen CEO Winterkorn was charged in US over diesel scandal, therefore the only logical choice for Volkswagen is to start the mass-production of Electric Vehicles.
It’s time to say goodbye to a 150-year-old internal combustion engine.