Volkswagen increases spending on EVs to $100 billion
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN Business
More than half the money Volkswagen Group spends in the next five years will go towards electric vehicles and other high-technology efforts, the German automaker announced Thursday.
By the end of 2026, VW expects that 25% of the vehicles it sells globally will be electric. Currently, electric vehicles account for 5% to 6% of VW sales.
As it prepares for that shift, VW will spend €89 billion, the equivalent of a little more than $100 billion, to speed its push towards electricification. This marks the first time VW is budgeting more than half its total spending — which totals roughly $180 billion — for EVs. At the same time, expenditures on hybrid vehicles, which use batteries along with gasoline engines will be reduced by 30%.
The expenditures will include new factories, such as a new plant at the companies headquarters at Wolfsburg, Germany. VW’s Project Trinity, a new flagship electric car planned for around 2025, will be built at Wolfsburg. VW also outlined plans for a number of new facilities throughout Europe.
Volkswagen is also planning to create a separate battery manufacturing company. The battery business is expected to generate up to €30 billion in revenue which is more than the company’s Skoda passenger car division currently generates, according to VW.
Besides the Volkswagen passenger vehicle brand and the mass-market Czech-based Skoda, VW also operates Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and the Spain-based Seat car brand.
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