Volkswagen shifts to next gear in electromobility race
Over the next ten years, the carmaker plans to launch almost 70 new electro models on the market. This should also increase the projected production volume from 15 to 22 million units.
By 2025, the CO2 footprint of the vehicle fleet is to be reduced by 30 percent over its entire life cycle compared to 2015. Accordingly, Volkswagen will electrify its vehicle portfolio and invest more than 30 billion euros in the renewal process by 2023. The share of electric vehicles among all cars produced is to increase to at least 40 percent by 2030.
The core of Volkswagen’s electrical thrust is the MEB Modular Drive Matrix. The company has announced to open up this design kit to competitors and thus achieve economies of scale. The aim is to significantly reduce the costs of e-mobility through partnerships and the widest possible dissemination of the platform. A first cooperation partner is the Aachen-based e-car startup e.GO. The kit is also increasingly finding friends in the Volkswagen Group itself; the Spanish VW sister company Seat recently announced that it was developing its own electric model based on the MEB.
Strategic battery cell suppliers such as LG Chem, SKI, CATL and Samsung have been selected to secure the production of the electric vehicles. In view of the further increase in demand, the OEM is also considering participating in its own battery cell production in Europe.
In view of the huge investments in the electrification and digitization of the model range, however, the Group will have to make savings elsewhere. In the next five years, between 5,000 and 7,000 jobs are to be cut – as a result of increasing automation and the elimination of routine work, it is said. However, it is undisputed in the automotive industry that the production of electric cars requires significantly less manpower than the production of vehicles with conventional drive systems – which are much more complex than electric drive systems.
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