Volkswagen could be forced to give a boost to its project of mass production of electric vehicles in order to respect European targets for reducing polluting emissions in the automobile, higher than expected the German group, said Tuesday, December 18, its chairman of the board.
The EU Member States and the European Parliament agreed on Monday 17 December to target a 37.5% reduction in carbon dioxide (CO²) emissions from passenger cars by 2030, despite differences on the subject. TheGermany, the largest European car market, had warned that too strict targets and a sharp turn towards the electric car could penalize its economy and remove jobs.
Volkswagen will spend 30 billion euros to reduce emissions
This target is higher than the 30% expected by Volkswagen and this will result for the manufacturer by the need to increase the share of electric vehicles in its total sales by more than 40% by this time, said Herbert Diess.
“This means that the planned restructuring program, which is essential to deal with this systemic change, is still not enough,” he added.
Volkswagen has planned so far to spend about 30 billion euros over the next five years to reduce 30% of its CO2 emissions by modifying its production tool to adapt to electric vehicles.
“It’s a big effort”
Peter Altmaier, the German Minister of the Economy, believes that the new goals are at the limit of what is technically and economically feasible. Around 436,000 industrial jobs in Germany are linked to the construction of thermal engine vehicles.
“This is a big effort and in the upper part of expectations, but we are convinced that this will ultimately help the industry finally accept that platforms and combustion engines must be standardized,” write the Evercore ISI analysts.
A change of strategy needed
The stricter objectives of the EU involve reviewing this strategy, said Hubert Diess in statements sent by email. “A restructuring of our product range, possibly a further reduction of our combustion engine-based offering and a significant adjustment to the structures of our plants, as well as additional cell and battery plants will be needed,” he said. he declares. Volkswagen’s projects will be reviewed in the fall of 2019, according to schedule, he added.
The company plans to spend nearly 44 billion euros by 2023 on the development of electric cars, autonomous vehicles and new mobility services to become the most profitable car manufacturer in this segment.
Competitors BMW and Daimler refused to comment on the new objectives of the EU. The German Federation of Automotive Manufacturers, VDA, judged the European targets too high and denounced the lack of indications on how to achieve them.
With Reuters (Tassilo Hummel, Christoph Steitz and Irene Preisinger, Claude Chendjou for the French service, edited by Bertrand Boucey)