Volkswagen Group to invest $52b into electrification, autonomy, connectivity

Matthias Müller, CEO for the German automotive group, said: "We are reinventing the car. To achieve that, we are making targeted investments to provide the necessary funds from our own resources".

"With the planning round now approved, we are laying the foundation for making Volkswagen the world's number one player in electric mobility by 2025," Müller said, referring to the company's goal of producing a million electrified vehicles per annum by 2025.

"Given its brands and potential for synergy, I am convinced that the Volkswagen Group will master this balancing act like no other company in our industry," Müller added.

Part of this initiative will involve schedule changes to accommodate production of the company's upcoming EV family based on its MEB platform.

The Zwickau manufacturing facility in Germany is set to be remodelled into an e-mobility plant, playing a key role in the electrification and hybridisation of the Volkswagen Group's portfolio.

As of the end of 2018, production of the Volkswagen Passat family will be "concentrated" at the company's Emden plant in Germany's north west.

Meanwhile, the next-generation 'Mark 8' Golf family will be produced at Volkswagen's Wolfsburg facility.

Other investments will be directed at driving the development of autonomous driving technologies, mobility services, and digitisation.

In September, the Group released its 'Roadmap E' strategy, which calls for electrification of its entire product portfolio by 2030, meaning the company is committed to at least one electric variant of each its circa-300 models across its brand portfolio.

Volkswagen forecasts that if it is successful, one in every four cars produced by the Group will be a battery-electric vehicle.

Some 80 new electrified models will be launched by 2025 as part of this strategy, while the company plans to spend more than 50 billion euros ($77.66 billion) on lithium-ion battery cells by 2030.

Key growth markets for this plan include Brazil, China, Russia and North America. The plan's budget, however, doesn't include investments from partner companies in China.

This is a far more focused and ambitious plan since Volkswagen announced its 'Together - Strategy 2025' plan last year, which detailed the launch of "more than 30" new electric and electric-assisted models by 2025.

With this latest Roadmap E strategy, Volkswagen has more than doubled its EV output forecasts.

Other plans include selective catalytic reduction (SCR) converters for "every new diesel engine" produced by the Volkswagen Group, along with particulate filters equipped to all upcoming petrol engines.

The Group is also working on synthetic fuels produced from renewable sources, and plans to expand its range of compressed natural gas (CNG) models, mainly driven by the Audi brand, refining its fuel-cell technology in the process.

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