VW increases EV investment

About 60 billion euros is planned for investment and development of electric mobility, digitalisation and hybridisation between 2020 and 2024 by the Volkswagen Group.

The share of planned spending on these fields increased to about 40% in its planning round 68 compared with about 30% in the previous planning round, the group’s supervisory board revealed after its latest meeting.

This amounts to slightly more than 40% of the company’s investments in property, plant and equipment and all research and development costs during the planning period, the group says, representing an increase of around 10%.

The group intends to invest more than half, around 33b of the 60b euros, in electric mobility alone.

“We will step up the pace again in the coming years with our investments,” supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Potsch says.

“Hybridisation, electrification and digitalisation of our fleet are becoming an increasingly important area of focus.”

Group chief executive officer Herbert Diess says VW is also working on increasing productivity, efficiency and its cost base to meet its targets.

VW plans to introduce up to 75 all-electric models to the market (five more than previously) along with about 60 hybrid vehicle models by the end of 2029.

The number of projected EVs will rise to about 26 million, largely due to the addition of a year to the planning period to include 2029.

It’s also aiming to sell nearly six million hybrid vehicles by 2029.

About 20 million of the EVs planned through 2029 will be based on the group’s modular electric drive matrix (MEB). Most of the remaining six million will be based on the high-performance platform (PPE).

EVs 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, with production of the electric A-SUV (ID.Next) due to start in 2022.

A decision about a planned multi-brand plant may be made by the end of the year.

Chinese joint ventures are not included in the consolidated group and are therefore excluded from the planning.