New people’s electrics
VOLKSWAGEN intends to sell electric cars for less than ¤20,000 ($NZ34,182) and protect German jobs by converting three factories to make Tesla rivals.
VW and other carmakers are struggling to adapt quickly enough to stringent rules introduced after the carmaker was found to have cheated on diesel emissions tests. Its chief executive Herbert Diess warned last month that Germany’s auto industry faces extinction.
Plans for VW’s electric car, known as ‘‘MEB entry’’ and with a production volume of 200,000 vehicles, were due to be discussed at a supervisory board strategy meeting this week.
Another vehicle, the I.D. Aero electric van, will be built in a plant currently making the VW Passat, a midsized sedan, a source said.
The Wolfsburgbased carmaker, which declined to comment on the plans, is also expected to discuss farreaching alliances with battery cell manufacturer SK Innovation and rival Ford, the source said.
The strategy meeting will discuss Volkswagen’s transformation plan to shift from being Europe’s largest maker of combustion engine vehicles into a mass producer of electric cars, another source familiar with the deliberations said.
VW’s strategy shift comes as cities start to ban diesel engine vehicles, forcing carmakers to think of new ways to safeguard 600,000 German industrial jobs, of which 436,000 are at car companies and their suppliers. — Reuters