VW to roll out electric trucks, buses

Volkswagen is flanking its push into electric cars with plans to roll out battery-powered commercial vehicles targeted at urban areas as growing public concerns about air quality boost demand.

The Volkswagen Truck & Bus division will invest $1.7 billion in new technology including electric drivetrains, autonomous systems and cloud-based software, Andreas Renschler, head of the unit, said Wednesday in an interview in Hamburg. To help spread the costs, U.S. affiliate Navistar International Corp. will adopt the electric drivetrain.

A battery-powered VW truck, dubbed e-Delivery, will roll off assembly lines in Brazil in 2020, while the German manufacturer’s MAN and Scania nameplates will both deliver wholly electric buses next year to European cities, adding to bio-diesel, hybrid systems and natural-gas line-ups.

“We believe in a wide range of alternative powertrains and fuels, depending on local availability, social and local demand and customer requirements,” Renschler said.

Electric trucks for local deliveries will probably exceed a 5 percent market share by 2025, according to Renschler. That compares to a forecast of about 25 percent for battery-powered autos. Commercial-vehicle manufacturers have been slow to develop electric models as loads are heavier than for cars and they serve a wider range of industry needs. Complicating matters is that trucks vary significantly across the globe because of differences in regulations, making it difficult to build vehicles in large enough volumes to generate economies of scale.