► One in three VWs to be EVs
► 30 electric models by 2025
► New Together Strategy 2025 unveiled
Volkswagen’s ambitious new Together Strategy 2025 realignment plan spells out just how serious Wolfsburg is about becoming an electric car pioneer: one in three VWs will be EVs by 2025, the group chief revealed today.
Speaking at the annual general meeting in Hanover, CEO Matthias Mueller vowed he’d make Volkswagen the world’s leading maker of green vehicles, calling the electrification push ‘second to none in the industry.’
The news comes in the week that German media report that VW is looking to axe 40 model ranges, as it seeks to realign its product portfolio.
One in three VWs to be electric
Mueller revealed that the group planned to launch more than 30 fully electric new vehicles by 2025. ‘We expect that by then we will be selling about 2 to 3 million pure-electric automobiles a year,’ he added. ‘This will account for a significant share – an estimated 25 percent – of our total sales volume. We are stepping up our efforts accordingly and will launch a multi-billion euro investment programme.’
VW is putting great store in electrification as it attempts to purge memories of the diesel emissions scandal. But the company isn’t turning its back on the humble internal combusion engine.
‘It will be with us for some time to come and will still account for around two-thirds of the new vehicles market volumes in 2030. But that also means the other third will be electrically powered. The breakthrough for e-mobility will long be reality by then. And we are determined to make e- mobility a new hallmark of Volkswagen.’
The company today also announced that it would fit new TSI and TFSI petrol engines with gasoline particulate filters from June 2017, mopping up to 90% of particulate emissions. Up to 7 million VW group products will use the tech by 2022, Mueller claimed.
Autonomous Volkswagens are coming
VW is looking to pivot itself in a new direction after the diesel scandal – and autonomous cars will arrive in tandem with the increasingly electric powertrains. Mueller said that early next decade was a viable launch date for self-driving Volkswagens.
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