Herbert dies
By 2020, the VW Group is expected to sell a total of 200,000 e-cars worldwide.
(Photo: AFP)
Frankfurt Volkswagen happy to be finished in time and with the ID.3 his first real electric car on the IAA to be able to present. But for CEO Herbert dies is that no reason to give the all-clear. The biggest entrepreneurial challenge in his view: the tightened environmental legislation.
“Minimizing carbon emissions is pushing the limits of our industry’s resilience,” Diess said IAA in conversation with journalists. The Wolfsburg-based group will probably be able to reach the limits set by the EU. But that would only be possible if the newly introduced electric vehicles were actually accepted and purchased by the customers.
The next tightening of carbon dioxide values within Europe will come into force next year. Then the vehicles sold by the European manufacturers are allowed to release on average only 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer driven to the environment.
Currently, the figures for most car companies still at 120 to 130 grams. 2025 and 2030 will be further tightened: by the end of the next decade, the automakers have to reach an average of about 60 grams. If the corporations are then above these requirements, they face penalties worth billions.
With the greatly expanded range of electric vehicles, the automotive industry wants to get the first impending tightening of the coming year under control. The VWGroup is expected to sell a total of 200,000 e-cars worldwide in 2020. “These start-up goals are achievable,” emphasized Diess at the auto show. This figure includes both battery-powered cars and plug-in hybrids.
Volkswagen is entering the electric world with this car
A key role plays the VW factory in the Saxon Zwickau, where the Wolfsburg car company in November with the series production of the new battery-powered ID.3, The car should be something like the electric counterpart to the VW classic Golf. If the head of the group retains this right and the production starts are actually working, around 100,000 cars will leave the production lines in Zwickau next year.
These e-cars are immensely important to avoid impending fines from Brussels. They are regarded as zero emissions vehicles in the carbon dioxide statistics and can press the average value of all cars sold by Volkswagen decisively.
The former Golf and Passat factory in Zwickau is the first VW plant to be completely converted to the production of electric cars. In a second step Emden and Hannover will follow later. In total, the Volkswagen brand alone is investing around EUR 11 billion in the expansion of the electrical business between 2019 and 2023. At Group level, more electric factories will be built in the US and, above all, in China.
In the conversation at the IAA, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess hinted that in his view the car industry is treated unfairly in terms of carbon dioxide reduction. Other sectors of the economy should also play their part in reducing the carbon dioxide burden significantly.
This was first mentioned by the energy industry. It would be much easier, for example, to convert a few power plants from coal to natural gas in order to make great progress in improving the climate. That’s why VW is switching its own power plant in Wolfsburg from coal to gas.
Converting millions of cars to environmentally friendly drive systems involves much more effort than the conversion of a few large power plants. In the car it costs about 1000 euros to reduce the environmental impact by one tonne of carbon dioxide. In a power plant just 14 euros would have to be applied.
More: Many companies have already reduced their involvement in Germany’s most important auto show. Now the IAA is probably facing more radical upheavals.