Volkswagen to increase lightweight materials demand as it joins all-electric vehicle crowd

Volkswagen, the world’s largest car maker, has said it will release ‘an electric vehicle each month from 2022’, after it pledged to focus on battery powered cars at its annual conference in Berlin.

VW, which builds the Porsche, Skoda and Bentley marques, is preparing to launch its first purpose-built electric car, the VW iD. The German motor giant will also start supplying charging wallboxes for EV car buyers, priced at £266.

Matthias Müller, said: “Over the last few months, we have pulled out all the stops to implement ‘Roadmap E’ with the necessary speed and determination. When “Roadmap E” was launched last Autumn, Volkswagen announced plans to build up to three million electric vehicles annually by 2025 and market 80 new electric Group models. This year, another nine new vehicles, three of which will be purely electric-powered, will be added to the Group’s electric portfolio of eight e-cars and plug-in hybrids.”

VW stated it currently produces electric vehicles at three locations, and in two years’ time a further nine Group plants are scheduled to be equipped for this purpose. To ensure adequate battery capacity for the massive expansion of environmentally-friendly electric mobility, partnerships with battery manufacturers for Europe and China have already been agreed. The contracts already awarded have a total volume of around €20 billion.

Several innovations from the Group were presented at the Geneva International Motor Show in March 2018, among them the Audi e-tron, the Porsche Mission E and the I.D. Vizzion, another member of the Volkswagen I.D. family.