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VW To Spend $50 Billion In Push To Launch 50 Electric Cars By 2025

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Ahh the EV announcements come daily from VW and while we’re truly excited about what’s to come, we can only hope that it’s all a reality in the making.

How about a grand slew of affordable EVs that can perform like that of Tesla vehicles? How about long-range electric vehicles that you can buy just about anywhere and everywhere that are truly impressive in so many ways? We’re talking about a whole lineup of electric cars and SUVs that are designed to appeal to the masses. Volkswagen says it’s ready to make that happen.

Honestly, VW Group as a whole — arguably above any other automaker — has the finances, resources, and capacity to pull this off with ease. Based on its multitude of announcements, the company is well aware that it can (if it chooses) make this an incredible reality. Let’s cross our fingers and push hard for it to come to fruition.

Following in the footsteps of Hyundai’s announcement that it has secured more battery cells to make to enough Kona EVs to satisfy growing U.S. demand, and also on the heels of Rivian’s huge announcement of a viable all-electric adventure-based pickup truck and 3-row SUV. Now, VW Group has announced another massive investment over the next five years, in an obvious attempt to keep up with the newfound switch to EVs. The company is also now increasingly touting its upcoming connected services and self-driving tech.

As this press release reveals, VW has added a budget of another $11 billion between now and 2023 to bring its total investment up to $50 billion, which will help efforts to release some 50 new electric vehicles by 2025. The automaker claims to have the capacity to manufacture up to 15 million EVs on its new MEB platform within that suggested time frame.

Source: Automotive News Europe

This article originally appeared on Inside EVs.

 
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From the Financial Times [16 Nov]:

Volkswagen has pledged to spend €44bn on technologies for electric cars, autonomous driving and new mobility services, such as ride-sharing, over the next five years.

The €44bn, one-third of total expenditure in the next half-decade, compares with a pledge last year to spend €34bn on future technologies and underscores increasing moves towards the switch to battery-powered vehicles.

Herbert Diess, chief executive of the world’s largest carmaker, said €30bn of the money will be spent on electric vehicles.

Source: Subscribe to read | Financial Times


It presently looks like VW will lead the classic manufacturers in EV adoption. To reiterate, they are the world's #1, and this money will be spent inside the next five years, divided over all three major markets.

They do dominate the top ten sales chart in China too, so what with the government forcing companies to invest in electric transportation, a lot of activity is and will be happening there.

On a side note, it seems like all the battery cells for these millions of EVs [and PHEVs?] will be coming from Chinese and Korean suppliers. I can't remember if Panasonic secured a piece of the cake.


Edit: You too can help US industry by carrying a biggish lump of clean coal around wherever you go. You never know when that derangement extender might come in handy.
 
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Good luck on long trips , someone tried it in a Bolt. Took 16 days to go 2000 miles.
Who is going to build high voltage charging staions? Every public charger i have tried in towns are 110 volt.
I know folks with BMW, Leaf, Bolts, they are city cars. Only go 100 miles max.
Good luck .
 
Good luck on long trips , someone tried it in a Bolt. Took 16 days to go 2000 miles.
Who is going to build high voltage charging staions? Every public charger i have tried in towns are 110 volt.
I know folks with BMW, Leaf, Bolts, they are city cars. Only go 100 miles max.
Good luck .
tesla already has high speed network that makes long trips a breeze. look up Electrify America network. VW will have access to fast charger network soon
 
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Reactions: Big Dog
$15bn not $50bn. The initial $50bn was apparently a translation error or something.
Apparently there were two separate announcements, one that VW will spend $50B, the other, incorrectly at first, that they would make 50 million cars. The second was corrected to 15 million cars. I believe the $50B investment number is still operational.
 
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Reactions: EVMeister
tesla already has high speed network that makes long trips a breeze. look up Electrify America network. VW will have access to fast charger network soon
If you do look at the Electrify America network as planned for 10 years out, I think you'll find it to be quite inadequate for North American travel if you're outside California.

map_03%20%281%29.png
 
If you do look at the Electrify America network as planned for 10 years out, I think you'll find it to be quite inadequate for North American travel if you're outside California.
I estimate that the diameter of each circle in the map is 40-50 miles. The main limitation with the map as it stands (besides time to charge) is the frequent inability to jump to the nearest parallel interstate more than ~ 150 miles away. In other words those dependent on EA are to a large degree stuck on whatever interstate they started with.
 
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I think that I'd make a billion dollar bet that they don't make it.

And no, 1 car sold to 50 markets with slight differences isn't a different car.

It's unbelievable that vw would introduce 7 cars a year over the next 7 years.

They need to get car #1 out first.
 
a bit more than california, right? see below. BTW, the money from Electrify America comes in part from VW Dieselgate - substantial $. I would not assume all of this is build in year 10. There is a substantial Electrify America site 3 miles from Reston VA where I live - a long way from CA. Plus there are other networks. Tesla owners already know long-haul trips are a breeze. Plug in, get a coffee, and on the road again. Let's not assume it stops there and Tesla is the only one that ever figures this out.

DC Fast EV Charging Along Highway Corridors

Electrify America’s DC Fast EV charging stations will be located along high-traffic corridors in 39 states, including two cross-country routes. Locations will accommodate between four and ten chargers, with charging power levels up to 350kW available at every station, capable of adding 20 miles of range per minute to a vehicle. Nationally, each planned station site will be located no more than 120 miles apart and, on key East and West Coast highways, planned locations average only 70 miles apart.
 
Herbert Diess, chief executive of the world’s largest carmaker, said €30bn of the money will be spent on electric vehicles.

That's 34b USD by the way, inside the next five years.

Now I'll dig around and see if it can be ascertained that this is going to EVs only or also includes PHEVs.

And it does probably exclude the previously announced spending for battery cells, where talks now are ongoing for VW to invest in its own bespoke European supply in a joint venture with SKI.

And I wonder if this is correct:
"The joint ventures in China are not consolidated and are therefore not included in the plans. These joint venture companies provide their own funding for investments in plants and products." | Source: greencarcongress

All important guidelines to better understand these pretty concrete plans.

VW CEO Diess is an engineer who was lured over from BMW when passed over for the top spot.
This is happening - the full board, which includes workers' councils and the local state ownership, are behind it.

If you want to know more about Diess, read/translate the following Handelsblatt article:
VW: Wie Herbert Diess den weltgrößten Autokonzern umbaut | 16.11.2018

Plus link to a primary source:
Volkswagen is investing in the future [11/16/18 Wolfsburg Volkswagen Group News]
with the speech in English:
Press Conference Planning Round 67
Laying the Strategic Foundation for the Volkswagen Group | November 16, 2018
[to volkswagen-newsroom:] https://bit.ly/2Pzedqh
 
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I think that I'd make a billion dollar bet that they don't make it.

And no, 1 car sold to 50 markets with slight differences isn't a different car.

It's unbelievable that vw would introduce 7 cars a year over the next 7 years.

They need to get car #1 out first.

Context from Herbert Diess' speech linked to above:

"Today, we have 6 battery electric vehicles in our program. By 2025, there will be more than 50."

Volkswagen Group is the home of a gaggle of brands: Audi, Seat, Skoda, VW, et al.

So yes, it will probably be the same platforms with slight differences.
 
Now I'll dig around and see if it can be ascertained that this is going to EVs only or also includes PHEVs.
Arithmetic is enough: $34B USD for 15M cars = ~ $2,250 per car on average. Your question should be "Where are the BEVs ?," not how many PHEVs.

Or just wait until next week for different numbers.

As an aside, to call me skeptical of VW is a gross understatement unless the question is what they are lying about now but Europe is currently subsidizing PHEVs and it makes sense for manufacturers to respond. My interest is in knowing how much those heavily subsidized PHEVs are being plugged-in, or whether they were simply bought as a cheap(er) ICE.
 
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