VW plans to storm into electric car market
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 batterypowered vehicles more accessible to mass-market auto buyers by selling its new I.D. compact for about what a Golf diesel costs.
Volkswagen’s investment plans for the next five years aim to make it “a worldwide supplier of sustainable mobility,” Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said Friday.
He said the company is in talks with Ford about possible cooperation in making light commercial vehicles.
Automakers as well as several U.S. startups are rolling out electric models to compete with Tesla, the market leader. Auto companies need electrics to meet new environmental standards in many countries.
In Europe, manufacturers need to sell more battery-powered cars to meet tougher EU limits on carbon dioxide emissions that come into force in 2021 and aim to fight global warming. Automakers like Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW risk penalties of thousands of euros per vehicle if they can’t meet requirements for lower average emissions.
Authorities in China, where Volkswagen gets much of its profit, have also mandated a bigger share of electrics and hybrids.
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. They are running from 1 to 2 percent of U.S. new-vehicle sales so far this year.
VW’s upcoming I. D. compact could take massmarket buyers from Tesla’s Model 3, a mass-market car with a base price of $35,000 before tax credits. In reality, though, you can’t order one yet for less than $46,000.
Poetsch said the I.D. compact would be about the cost of a Golf diesel.