VW CEO Herbert Diess warns of higher costs for the large-scale e-car offensive. “We need higher profits to finance our future,” he said in a joint interview with Works Council Chairman Bernd Osterloh. This emerges from the VW staff magazine “Inside”, which was the German Press Agency on Wednesday. “Especially since we have seen that some of our competitors have made even greater progress,” said Diess.
For Volkswagen, a company heavily impacted by the dieselgate fiasco, producing eco-friendly EVs is definitely a way to go in order to clear up its reputation. Hence, the German carmaker plans to produce 100,000 at its first production facility to go electric: the Zwickau plant.
There, the first of several models from VW’s I.D. electric vehicle range are slated to be produced. Ultimately, the company aims to gear up to 100,000 electric vehicles by 2020, giving this production plant a daunting task of satisfying the ever-growing needs of the EV car world.
Overall, VW wants to put more than 34 billion euros in the development of electric cars, new mobility services and digitization from 2018 to 2022 according to earlier data. By the end of 2022, battery electric cars will be built at 16 locations worldwide. Last fall, Volkswagen announced that it would build up to three million electric cars per year by 2025 and launch 80 new electrified models.
