Starting in 2022, Volkswagen Will Be Releasing One New EV Per Month

TopSpeed

By Kirby Garlitos

Published Mar 16, 2018

It seems like overkill, doesn't it?

Volkswagen is going balls-to-the-wall with its electric vehicle lineup to the point that CEO Matthias Müller expects one new electric model to come out from the German automaker per month when its EV program hits its stride by 2022. VW’s massive electric car push is a product of the company’s plan to launch the largest fleet of electric vehicles among all brands in the world.

Volkswagen isn’t messing around, is it? There are companies that have plans to be big players in the electric car scene. Then there are companies like Volkswagen that want the biggest piece of that pie. According to Müller, VW’s big electric car push begins in earnest with the arrival of the Volkswagen ID, which is expected to launch the automaker’s first all-electric model in 2020. Once that happens, the company is opening its doors to as many as 300 new electric cars by 2030. That’s not a typo. Volkswagen wants to have 300 new electric cars by the end of the next decade, a lot of which will be added to existing model ranges. Müller added that when VW hits the peak of its electric car production, it would be able to launch “practically one new electric model per month.”

If all of this sounds a little excessive, it’s because it probably is. It’s just that Volkswagen probably doesn’t care what any of us think because the company has made up its mind to be the biggest electric car manufacturer in the world by the next decade. In fact, it’s already going full steam ahead with its all-electric car plans. On the production side, VW plans to adapt nine of its production sites with production equipment necessary to build electric vehicles by 2022. That tally goes up to 16 production sites by 2022, and possibly more in the future “once market demand allows this.”

To its credit, Volkswagen isn’t turning its back on traditional powertrains because of its all-hands-on-deck approach towards electrification. Volkswagen’s chief technical officer, Frank Witter, told Autocar that the German automaker is also investing €20 billion into more conventional powertrain technology to ensure that these engines remain modern and abide by rising emissions standards.

In some ways, it’s hard to blame Volkswagen for being aggressive with its electric car push. Its status as one of the industry’s biggest automakers gives it the resources to do that. But a big part of this push also revolves around trying to change the public perception around the brand, something many thought was irreparably tarnished after the Dieselgate scandal. Even Müller admitted that the automaker’s rapid transformation and focus on EVs have been driven by the diesel scandal. The diesel scandal told us there was a need for radical change; the crisis has acted as a catalyst,” he said.

Turns out, it was a catalyst for Volkswagen to go crazy on all-electric vehicles. Let's see how this one turns out.