The Volkswagen Group’s (VLKAF) ambitious plans for the future will focus on electric cars, according to a recent announcement by the company. The group now is planning to build 70 new electric models over the next decade. The announcement was made at the group’s annual conference.
Volkswagen now plans to build 22 million electric cars across its brands by 2028. The brands under its umbrella include Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Ducati, Lamborghini, MAN, Porsche, Scania, Seat, Skoda, Volkswagen, and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. Previously, the group had estimated having 15 million electric cars built across its brands by 2028.
Volkswagen has set a goal to cut the CO2 footprint of its vehicle fleet by 30 percent by 2025. The company also wants 40 percent of the vehicles it sells to be electrics by 2030. The company has two electric cars, the Audi e-tron and Porsche Taycan, going into production this year. According to Volkswagen, reservations for each of the models are already up to 20,000.
The German carmaker sold a record 10.8 million cars in 2018. Roughly 40,000 of those were electric vehicles, and around 60,000 were plug-in hybrids. Volkswagen has already selected CATL, LG Chem, Samsung and SKI as battery suppliers for its new models.
Volkswagen previously announced making new investments in electric and battery technology. The company some of its investments are in solid-state battery technology, which offers promising benefits over batteries with liquid electrolytes. The company is also contemplating entering into the battery manufacturing business in Europe, according to the announcement.
