New Delhi [India], Mar. 14 (ANI): Auto major Volkswagen Group announced that 16 of its locations around the globe will produce battery-powered electric vehicles by the end of 2022.

The group 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 EUR 20 billion. A supplier decision for North America will be taken shortly.

"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 fall, 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. A number of innovations from the Group were presented last week at the Geneva International Motor Show, among them the Audi e-tron, the Porsche Mission E and the I.D. VIZZION, another member of the Volkswagen I.D. family. From 2019, there will be a new electric vehicle virtually every month," Volkswagen AG CEO Matthias Müller said at the Group's Annual Media Conference in Berlin.

However, the company chief clarified that there would be no change in the production of vehicles running on conventional drive systems. Modern diesel drives were part of the solution, not part of the problem, he further said, also with regard to climate change.

"We are making massive investments in the mobility of tomorrow, but without neglecting current technologies and vehicles that will continue to play an important role for decades to come. We are putting almost EUR 20 billion into our conventional vehicle and drive portfolio in 2018, with a total of more than EUR 90 billion scheduled over the next five years," he added.

For 2018, the Group expects deliveries to its customers to moderately exceed the prior-year figure. Challenges in the current fiscal year, the firm stated, will arise mainly from the economic situation, increasing competition, exchange rate volatility and the diesel issue. In the EU, there is also a new, more time-consuming test procedure for determining pollutant and carbon dioxide emissions as well as fuel consumption in passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (WLTP).

Furthermore, the company said sales revenue is expected to be up by as much as five percent on the prior-year figure, while an operating return on sales between 6.5 and 7.5 percent is anticipated. (ANI)


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