VW Group expected to go through major mend

KUALA LUMPUR: The Volkswagen Group is likely to undergo an unprecedented metamorphosis programme. Based on reports, the carmaker has unveiled that it will launch 70 EVs by 2028, twenty more than what was announced originally.

By 2025, the group is said to have invested 30 billion euros (RM 140 billion) alone in the electrification campaign. This major move also contains the plan of boosting the production of electric vehicles from 15 million to 22 million units. This will increase the share of EVs across the brands under the VW group by 40% in 2030. The company also has the ambition to be a fully CO2-neutral marque, not only in its products but also in their manufacturing processes.

The ambitious electrification drive is a part of the corporate plan, called ‘Vision 2030’. It is based on four balusters, namely restructuring of the global production network, the introduction of new technologies, attention to the core brands, and deliberate focus on the manufacturing of EVs, digitalisation, and autonomous driving.

Furthermore, the Volkswagen group will engage in a total of three new EV platforms - (compact- to mid-size cars; development led by VW), the PPE (mid- to full-size cars; developed jointly by Porsche and Audi) and at last the J1 (performance car platform; Audi e-tron GT, Porsche Taycan). All these EVs will gradually replace the combustion engine portfolio.

Herbert Diess, chairman of VW Group said, “In the long run, we want to scale back the portfolio of conventional models and concentrate instead on a fast-growing family of EVs. With the ID model range, Volkswagen is about to demonstrate the benefits of fusing diversification and standardisation.”

Now coming to the dark side, sources from Wolfsburg suggest that only Volkswagen, Porsche, and Audi may survive in long-run in their current status. Whereas other brands like Lamborghini, Italdesign, Bugatti, Bentley, and Ducati may be reworked, merged or even sold with time. Inside sources also suggest that the company may go on creating an additional brand exclusively to sell EVs, in a bid to assist the electrification drive.