Volkswagen Group increases spending on electric vehicles

While Honda is unconvinced about the public appeal of EVs, the Volkswagen Group is increasing spending in the emerging sector.

After a meeting of the Volkswagen Group’s supervisory board late last week, the automaker confirmed it was increasing its average annual spend on developing electric, hybrid and digital technologies by around 36 per cent from €8.8 billion ($14.3 billion) to €12 billion ($19.5 billion).

As part of Volkswagen’s latest five-year plan, it will increase spending on EV development to €6.6 billion ($10.7 billion) annually.

Thanks to this increased outlay, the company will launch 75 EVs by the end of 2029, up from the 70 it had previously committed to. The automaker will also release 60 hybrids during the same period.

The automaker now expects to sell 26 million pure electric vehicles by the 2029. This will consist of 20 million cars based on the affordable MEB architecture for the Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and Seat brands.

Production of the company’s first electric car on the MEB platform, the Golf-sized ID.3 (below), began last month, but the car won’t arrive in Australia until 2022. In fact, the yet-to-be-revealed ID.4 crossover will be the company’s first EV for the Australian market.

The majority of the remaining six million anticipated sales will use the high-end PPE architecture currently being developed by Porsche and Audi.

Electric vehicles will be built in the group’s plants in Germany, the Czech Republic, the USA and China.

The figures in Volkswagen’s latest announcement excludes investments in China, because vehicles produced there are done by 50/50 joint ventures with FAW and SAIC, and money for these companies are raised from separate sources.

Source : caradvice