Fierce competition
Volkswagen, now the second largest producer in the world after Toyota, is facing a constantly evolving market and increasingly fierce competition. Carmakers are competing to develop electric vehicles and meet Europe’s increasingly stringent CO2 emissions targets, under penalty of heavy penalties. Ford has announced that it will only produce electric cars by 2030 in Europe. This week Volvo has joined a growing number of carmakers aiming for an all-electric range by 2030. Stellantis, the new group born from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA, also plans to have all-electric or hybrid versions of all its vehicles available in Europe by 2025.
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In China and the United States, Volkswagen expects the share of all-electric vehicles it sells to rise to 50% by 2030, in an attempt to compete and possibly win its race with Tesla, which today dominates the U.S. electric market. “Of all the major manufacturers, Volkswagen has the best chance of winning the race,” said Brandstaetter.
The chances of Vw and the MEB platform
A confirmation came from a report by Ubs Auto and Mobility Research, according to which the VW group, thanks to its MEB platform, Modular Electric Drive Toolkit, has what it takes to be able to hook Tesla as early as 2022. VW is up to speed on costs of the battery (among the top 3 in the world with 100 dollars per kWh), less on the software side, even if within a few months it should be able to guarantee OTA updates (over the air, therefore remotely) as Tesla already does or the young Chinese houses Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto.
At least one new electric a year
In order to prevail, Volkswagen will launch at least one new battery-powered model every year. The all-wheel drive ID.4 GTX1 is expected in the first half of 2021, followed by the ID.5 sports car in the second half of the year. The ID.6 X / Cross1, a seven-seater electric SUV for the Chinese market, will be launched in the fall. Plans for an entry-level electric car starting at 20,000 euros have been postponed to 2025.
Volkswagen will also continuously optimize the MEB platform for e-cars and work on the next generation platform, the Scalable Systems Platform. But we are talking about 2026, with the Trinity project.