The Volkswagen Group will invest €89 billion (£76bn) in new technology within the next four years as part of a push to make a quarter of all its sales battery-electric by the end of 2026.
It has also announced plans to electrify more of its European factories, centring much of its flagship EV production in its Wolfsburg and Hanover factories in Germany’s Lower Saxony region.
The firm has already announced that Volkswagen’s flagship Project Trinity model will be built on a new production line at Wolfsburg from 2026.
It has revealed that it will retool a production line at the site to start producing the Volkswagen ID 3 from 2023. The electric hatchback is currently built only in Zwickau, and this move will allow the group to increase output beyond current production limits.
The Volkswagen Group is already planning a second EV manufacturing facility to open at Wolfsburg from 2030.
Meanwhile, the production car resulting from Audi’s Artemis project – which will include both the forthcoming A8 successor previewed by the Grandsphere concept and bodies for a future Bentley model – will be built at the Hanover plant from 2025 onwards.
While no details have been given, it's likely that bodies for the first full electric Bentley will be built at the site, in a similar way that the Bentayga bodies are currently built in Germany and shipped to Crewe. Bentley has been pushing for its first EV to be built at Crewe, but a production location has not yet been confirmed.
Volkswagen will start building the ID Buzz in passenger and cargo forms in Hanover next year, and it has also confirmed that a new ID California camper version will be built alongside those.
Elsewhere, the firm will build two new Porsche models on the pure-electric PPE architecture at its Leipzig facility, with Neckarsulm becoming home to Audi’s E6 model family. From 2026, the new Audi Q8 E-tron will be built in Brussels, Belgium.
Volkswagen's Salzgitter plant will become home to the firm’s European battery hub, where its planned unified battery cells will be built from 2025.
Hanover will be used to build axles for MEB models, while the Braunschwig, Kassel and Salzgitter facilities will be used to produce battery systems, rotors and electric motors for MEB-based EVs, while other plants will be prepared for the next-generation SSP platform that will be used by the Artemis models.
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Just what is the mark-up on the sale of a new car these days?
£76 billion over four years for new technology? That's brave of VW. Won't they need that money to pay compensation from all the class action claims in the dieselgate cases?
I can't help but think EVs are replacing one horrible problem with another (and a very expensive one at that).
As a lifelong car enthusiast, I'm thinking of replacing my current, ageing, ICE car with a bicycle, walking and the occasional last resort of public transport.
How sad is that.
If you're able to get around everywhere you need in that way that's brilliant, you could then just buy a enthusiasts car for sun days and fun days. Nothing sad about that at all!
By all means, go ahead. There's never going to be a transport method that's less harmful than cycling or walking.
However, if you're going to be driving, EVs are *far* less harmful than combustion, whether you're looking at greenhouse gas or respiratory pollution. In the UK, they're cleaner per passenger than diesel buses.
If you are in a position to just get around on a bicycle, bus/train or shanks's pony, then it would appear that you don't really need a car anyway, so what's the problem?
Look on the bright side - with everyone switching to EVs the air you breathe in as you wander around will be a lot cleaner, and you won't have your ears assaulted by all these obnoxious exhausts that are so common these days!
And that is a bright side. I'm constantly amazed how many 'needy' drivers there are on our roads that have to attract attention all the time.
I think I'm in a similar position to gavsmit, I see little appeal in anything coming on to the market so its unlikely I'll ever buy a new car again. But I've always loved cars and am intending (as has been mentioned) to satisfy that compulsion with a classic, or maybe two...
I completely understand where you are coming from. The looks, the character and, yes, the sound of older, classic cars is far more appealing than the often anodyne modern electric cars.
On the other hand, there is a chap near me who has a Porsche Taycan. It has such a futuristic, "sci-fi" sound as it goes past, I really like it. I know it is manufactured/artificial, but there is something really cool about it.
Couldn't agree more. If I didn't have to take my daughter to and from school every day I could happily ditch my car and use my feet or bicycle. Her school is only five miles away, but it is all country roads between us and the school, there are no pavements, and the only bus services would take about two and a half hours!
Unfortunately I suspect there are a lot of people like me. Modern life has made the car a necessity rather than a luxury. As I say though, I would gladly ditch it if I could as I love walking,