VW planning to market cheaper electric cars

FRANKFURT, GERMANY — Volkswagen intends to invest $50 billion in the electric and autonomous car technologies expected to reshape the industry — and said it would make battery-powered vehicles more accessible to mass-market auto buyers by selling its new I.D. compact for about what a Golf diesel costs.

The investment plans for the next five years aim to make Volkswagen “a worldwide supplier of sustainable mobility,” Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said Friday. He added that the company is in talks with Ford about possible cooperation in making light commercial vehicles.

Established automakers are rolling out electric models to compete with Tesla, but also to meet new environmental standards.

In Europe, manufacturers need to sell more battery-powered cars to meet tougher EU limits on carbon dioxide emissions that come into force 2021 and aim to fight global warming.

Automakers such as Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW risk penalties of thousands of euros per vehicle if they can’t meet requirements for lower average emissions.

Yet right now, such vehicles remain a niche market due to higher price and lack of places to charge. Battery-only vehicles were only 0.6 percent of the market in the European Union last year. Major new models unveiled in recent weeks from Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen’s Audi brand have been expensive SUVs; Audi’s e-tron starts at a German price of 80,000 euros ($91,300). The starting price for Tesla’s Model X is around $80,700 while the Model S is around $74,500.

Poetsch said the company’s I.D. compact would cost about what today’s Golf diesel does. A base model Golf diesel is priced at 23,875 euros ($26,990) in Germany according to VW’s website.