Volkswagen to Invest 60 billion Euro in e-mobility
Volkswagen will invest 60 billion euros ($66.12 billion) by 2024 to develop electric and hybrid cars as well as digital technologies, the group said on Friday.
This amounts to slightly more than 40 percent of the company’s investments in property, plant and equipment and all research and development costs during the planning period. The Volkswagen Group intends to invest around EUR 33 billion of this figure in electric mobility alone.
Volkswagen plans to build 75 variants of electric car and around 60 hybrid vehicle models, it said. By 2029 around 26 million electric cars will be built, of which 20 million vehicles will use VW’s electric MEB vehicle platform, the carmaker said.
Volkswagen plans to retool its plant in Emden, Germany to build an electric sports utility vehicle (SUV) from 2022 onwards, and a decision on where to locate a new factory will be taken by year-end, the carmaker said.
“We are resolutely pressing ahead with the transformation of the Volkswagen Group and focusing our investments on the future of mobility. This is part of our systematic and consequent implementation of the Group’s strategy,” said Hans Dieter Pötsch, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Volkswagen Group.
“We will step up the pace again in the coming years with our investments. Hybridization, electrification and digitalization of our fleet are becoming an increasingly important area of focus. We intend to take advantage of economies of scale and achieve maximum synergies. In light of the worsening economic situation, we are also working on increasing our productivity, our efficiency and our cost base so as to secure meeting our targets,” said Herbert Diess, Chief Executive Officer of the Volkswagen Group.
About 20 million of the e-vehicles planned through 2029 will be based on the Group’s Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB). Most of the remaining 6 million vehicles will be based on the High Performance Platform (PPE). E-vehicles are scheduled to be made outside Germany by the company’s plants in Mlada Boleslav, Chattanooga, Foshan and Anting. Others will be produced by German plants in Zwickau, Emden, Hannover, Zuffenhausen and Dresden. Plans for the Emden site were confirmed, according to which production of the electric A-SUV (ID.Next) should start in 2022. A camouflaged version of the ID.Next was already presented at this year’s Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (IAA). A decision about a planned multi-brand plant is scheduled to be made by the end of the year.