Volkswagen Chairman Matthias Müller has used the
Frankfurt Motor Show preview event to announce the company and its various
brands will launch more than 80 electrified vehicles by 2025.
Müller declined to go into specifics but confirmed
the "Roadmap E" will see the launch of around 50 battery-electric
vehicles and nearly 30 plug-in hybrids. This will be a massive change and
Volkswagen believes that approximately one in four of their vehicles could be
electric-only by 2025. If this projection pans out, Volkswagen would be selling
up to three million electric vehicles annually.
By 2030, the Volkswagen Group intends to have
electrified its entire product lineup. As the company explained, every single
model would have an electrified variant and that alone would result in around
300 eco-friendly models across the Group's brands.
The massive shift won't come cheap as Volkswagen is
earmarking 20 (US$ 23.9) billion toward the research, development, and support of
e-mobility. This will cover the creation of two new electric vehicle platforms,
plant upgrades, and building a charging infrastructure.
The costs don't stop there as Volkswagen says it
will need "150 gigawatt hours of battery capacity annually, by 2025, for
its own e-fleet alone." VW notes this is "equivalent to at least four
gigafactories" and this has pushed the automaker to put out a procurement
tender of over € 50 (US$ 59.7) billion.
