Over the next five years, Volkswagen will invest billions of euros more in electric driving and digitization. In total, the German car group is investing €89 billion in new technologies that should enable the switch to automated and electric driving, €16 billion more than previously planned.
It is the first time that Volkswagen earmarks more than half of all its investments for the next five years for the development of new technologies, the company writes in its strategy update. The total planned investments up to 2026 amount to €159 billion.
The Volkswagen Group wants one in every four cars it sells to be fully electric by 2026. In addition, the company feels the pressure from Brussels. The European Commission wants manufacturers to stop selling new passenger cars with combustion engines that require fossil fuels from 2035. The Volkswagen Group says it wants to be able to compete with Tesla with the substantial investments in innovation.
For the switch to electric driving, Volkswagen wants, among other things, to produce more of its own batteries. A factory in Salzgitter is to become a ‘hub’ for battery technology. A new electric car factory will also be built near the headquarters in Wolfsburg. The factory in Hanover is being modernized and the first production car of the Artemis project will eventually be built there. Then we are probably also talking about the Audi A8 e-tron. Hanover will also eventually build the ‘ID California’, presumably a camper version of the ID Buzz. Finally, compact EVs and electric SUVs are built at the Spanish plants in Martorell and Pamplona. The manufacturer will announce more concrete production plans at a later stage.
CEO under fire
The great ambitions to make the Volkswagen Group fully electric and to renew it has recently come under criticism from corporate chief executive Herbert Diess. Unions and employee representatives accuse him of preparing large rounds of layoffs to make Volkswagen more flexible. Diess may nevertheless remain as CEO of the Volkswagen Group, but changes have now been made to the management of Volkswagen. For example, Diess is no longer in charge of VW’s activities in China, but will become the responsibility of Ralf Brandstätter. He is already the CEO of the Volkswagen brand.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl