Advert
The Volkswagen Group claims it is launching the most comprehensive electrification initiative in the global automotive industry with its ‘Roadmap E’, resulting in the company electrifying its entire model portfolio by 2030 at the latest.
This means that, by then, there will be at least one electrified version of each of the 300 or so Group models across all brands and markets. This makes Volkswagen the first big mobility group to have put a date on the electrification of its entire fleet.
The Group will need more than 150 gigawatt hours of battery capacity annually by 2025 for its own e-fleet alone. This is equivalent to at least four gigafactories for battery cells. To meet this demand, the company has put one of the largest procurement volumes in the industry’s history out to tender: over €50 billion.
Volkswagen had already firmly established e-mobility as a key focus area in the “TOGETHER – Strategy 2025” future programme presented in June 2016, and set itself the goal of becoming the global number one in e-mobility by 2025.
The company estimates that around one in four new Group vehicles – up to three million units a year depending on how the market develops – could already be purely battery-powered in 2025.
Now, at this year’s IAA, Volkswagen is launching the next stage with “Roadmap E” – giving an added boost to product planning to massively accelerate the electrification of the Group-wide vehicle portfolio. The Group brands will bring a total of over 80 new electrified models to customers by 2025, including some 50 purely battery-powered vehicles and 30 plug-in hybrids. This figure will then increase over subsequent years until there is at least one electrified version for each of the Group’s 300 or so models across all vehicle classes worldwide by 2030 at the latest.
“Roadmap E” is also coupled with another increase in capex on e-mobility. Up until 2030, the Group will earmark over €20 billion for direct investments in the industrialization of e-mobility: in new vehicles based on two entirely new electric platforms, in upgrading plants and in training for the workforce, in charging infrastructure, in trading and sales and, last but not least, in battery technology and production.
By 2025, the Group will need over 150 gigawatt hours of li-ion battery capacity annually for its own fleet alone. In order to meet this huge requirement, a tender process has been initiated with regard to long-term strategic partnerships for China, Europe and North America. The procurement project is one of the largest in the history of the automotive industry, with a total order volume of over €50 billion just for the Group’s future volume vehicles based on the Modular Electrification Toolkit.
That will meet the Group’s needs for the first wave of e-mobility. Looking further ahead, Volkswagen is already gearing up for the next generation: solid-state batteries. The Group also plans to bring this forward-looking technology to market maturity together with partners.
Volkswagen will also continue to invest in the ongoing improvement of its conventional drives over the coming years. For instance, an SCR catalytic converter will be a standard feature of every new diesel engine produced by the Group going forward. All new gasoline engines will be equipped with a gasoline particulate filter across the board.
