Matthias Müller, the CEO of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (above), has presented the group’s future vision of mobility over the next decade entitled Together – Strategy 2025. At the same time, he reaffirmed that the company would invest billions of euros over the coming years in a major “electrification initiative second to none in the industry” as well as in autonomous driving, digitalization and new business fields such as mobility services.
“We are also continuing our intensive efforts to enhance the environmental compatibility of our diesel and gasoline models,” Müller stated. “We will successively equip the Group’s new TSI and TFSI engines with gasoline particulate filters. This initiative will begin with the 1.4 litre TSI engine* in the new VW Tiguan and the Audi A5 in June 2017. This will reduce particulate emissions by up to 90%. Up to 7 million Volkswagen vehicles could be equipped with this technology each year by 2022.”
The Volkswagen Group is going to launch over 30 fully electric new vehicles by 2025. “We expect that by then we will be selling about 2 to 3 million pure-electric automobiles a year. This will account for a significant share – an estimated 25 percent – of our total sales volume. We are stepping up our efforts accordingly and will launch a multi-billion euro investment program,” Müller declared.
Despite the strong focus on electrification within the program, the IC engine remains an integral part of the vision. “It will be with us for some time to come and will still account for around two-thirds of the new vehicles market volumes in 2030,” stated Müller. “But that also means the other third will be electrically powered. The breakthrough for e-mobility will long be reality by then. And we are determined to make e- mobility a new hallmark of Volkswagen.”
At the same time, Müller pointed out, “As far as the development of fuel cells is concerned, we intend to stay on the ball in this area too. And we will be ready when the time is ripe.”
A similar goal is being pursued in another initiative: establishing battery technology as one of the Volkswagen Group’s core competencies. This technology is the key to e-mobility. It accounts for 20 to 30% of value-added for fully electric vehicles. “We will need 150 gigawatt hours of battery capacity by 2025 for our own e-fleet alone – which would make for a massive procurement volume,” the CEO explained.
The economic importance of this issue is plain to see. And the technological expertise will certainly be a good fit with the Volkswagen Group. Müller pointed out: “We will examine in detail all strategic options for developing battery technology as a new core competency for the Volkswagen Group. In doing so, we will be scrutinizing the entire process chain – from raw material right through to battery production.”
June 20, 2016