VW unveils ambitious plans to go electric
Carmaker sets goal of 30 new models by 2025
Volkswagen is laying out a bold plan to bring electric vehicles to the masses with dozens of new models and unprecedented driving ranges, challenging other carmakers to keep pace a year after the emissions scandal rocked the German automaker.
The process got a boost at the Paris car show Thursday, when the company unveiled the I.D. concept car, a battery-powered hatchback that boasts a range almost twice as far as Tesla’s Model 3 sedan. Rather than an offshoot of an existing model in VW’s portfolio, the prototype is the company’s first electric vehicle built around a unique platform, a major commitment in financial and engineering resources.
“The future is electric,” chief executive officer Matthias Mueller said at an event in Paris. “We are creating a new Volkswagen that is tackling the fields of future importance with determination.”
The stakes are high for the company, with the scandal bleeding billions in fines and tarnishing the company’s image. To emphasize the importance of the new direction, VW is likening the hatchback to groundbreaking models such as the iconic Beetle, which put it on the map around the world, and the Golf compact that propelled the manufacturer to the top of the European auto industry in the 1980s.
The September 2015 revelation of diesel-emissions manipulation forced VW to change course. The emphasis is now on new technologies such as battery power and autonomous driving rather than the diesel engines that it pushed in the U.S., where the cheating was uncovered. With that technology besmirched, diesel cars accounted for 46.8 per cent of German auto sales in the first eight months of 2016, the lowest level since 2012.
Instead, Volkswagen now plans to bring out 30 battery-powered cars by 2025, with the Audi luxury division targeting three by 2020. The strategy, the most aggressive in the industry, includes a target of selling as many as three million electric autos a year — about 25 per cent of its global sales, whereas IHS Markit estimates batterypowered vehicles will account for just three per cent of worldwide demand by then.
“Volkswagen needs to finally get away from the diesel scandal that’s been dominating what we hear about them,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Centre of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany.
The push at Volkswagen, which includes developing rapid-charging technology, is part of the industry’s response to ever-tightening pollution standards. The European Union is seeking efficiency improvements in the next five years that would effectively be double the gains made since 2010. With the future of diesel technology compromised due to the Volkswagen scandal, manufacturers are now seeking to lure consumers to electric cars, which until now have failed to win wide popularity.
Among battery-powered models currently available from top carmakers, BMW’s i3, Renault’s Zoe and Nissan’s topselling Leaf were designed from the outset as all-electric vehicles. Otherwise, manufacturers have depended on established models as the basis of electric versions, to hold back costs amid uncertain demand.
To make electric cars more appealing, automakers will also use the Paris show to promote longer-range models. The VW car on display will have a top range of 600 kilometres on a fully charged battery, compared with the planned 345 km of U.S. competitor Tesla’s Model 3 sedan.