VW production director Michael Jost
Energy balance for the entire life cycle of a vehicle.
(Photo: Uta Wagner for Handelsblatt)
Wolfsburg product strategy is nothing new for Michael Jost. Already ten years ago, the automanager joined Skoda taken care of. In 2015 he moved to Wolfsburg to do the same job for the brand there Volkswagen to take over. But the message, the Jost announced on Tuesday at the Handelsblatt Auto Summit, it has in itself: Volkswagen prepares the exit from the combustion technology.
Cars with petrol or diesel engines will land on the siding in Wolfsburg over the medium term. “In 2026, the last product launch on a combustor platform will begin,” Jost announced to a surprised audience. The group see his future in the electric drive, Other manufacturers such as Volvo So far, they had only known each other at the end of the diesel drive.
An automaker like Volkswagen thinks in long product cycles. A single model is produced on average for about seven years, not much shorter is the advanced development phase. And in Wolfsburg is now calculated back starting from the year 2050.
Because for 2050 sees the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 a “climate-neutral society” in which the carbon dioxide emissions are suppressed and the global warming stops at two degrees. Paris will be something like the Basic Law for Volkswagen model and powertrain development. “We are committed to the 2015 agreement,” stressed chief strategist Jost.
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Volkswagen’s statement looks as follows: The climate targets should only be achieved if in 2050 not a single car with an internal combustion engine drives on the roads. This means that the last vehicle with a combustor will be sold around the year 2040. “The first stop sign is then set,” said Jost.
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The last new models as petrol or diesel should come on the market in the early 2030s, after 2025 begin in Wolfsburg, the development work on this last model generation with an internal combustion engine.
The end of the internal combustion engine should also change the inner workings of the VW Group. “The green branch is becoming our new business model,” emphasized Jost. The amount of carbon dioxide emissions will become a management tool in the company, “the climatic conditions form the basis of consolidation”. To initiate such a transformation in the “supertanker VW” is not easy, but feasible. The group is now on course.
Jost cited recent investment decisions as examples of the fact that the electric era has actually started at VW. In mid-November, the Group’s supervisory board had decided to convert two more VW plants: in Emden and Hanover, after 2022, almost all electric vehicles will be produced.
New rating system for energy consumption
Volkswagen is clearly committed to purely battery-powered vehicles. They offer from the point of view of Wolfsburg manufacturer the best energy balance and yield. Hybrid models therefore play a subordinate role in Volkswagen’s product plans. Only in a transitional period do they have a certain importance, according to Jost.
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With its new electric cars, Volkswagen also wants to introduce a completely different rating system for energy consumption. So far, each car is measured in terms of fuel consumption per 100 kilometers driven. In the words of its chief strategist Jost, however, VW will in the future set up an energy balance for the entire life cycle of a vehicle (“well-to-wheel”). For example, the energy consumption during the production of a car is already being measured.
Volkswagen also promises climate neutrality for the entire life cycle of a vehicle. The electricity that is consumed in the VW factories will in the future be used exclusively from renewable energy sources. A climate-neutral operation of the cars is also to be made possible for the customers – for example through the sale of carbon dioxide certificates.
The other car manufacturers and suppliers are also preparing for electromobility, albeit with different approaches. The internal combustion engine will not follow the electric drive as a panacea for all cases, Alexander Mankowsky was convinced. “One size fits for all – this time is over in mobility”, stated the futurologist of the Stuttgart car manufacturer Daimler on the car summit. “The battery also has its limits,” Mankowsky said.
ZFCEO Wolf-Henning Scheider sees the plug-in hybrid as a solution for the next two decades, especially for those families who could afford only one car. “Only the hybrid completely covers the individual mobility wishes of the customers,” emphasized Scheider in Wolfsburg.
The next-generation mixed drive with a range of 100 kilometers allows for electric driving in cities or commuting to work, and thus 85 percent of all journeys are electric.