Volkswagen's plans with the I.D. family are undoubtedly grand, and the German manufacturer is going to great lengths to make sure their upcoming EVs will be best-sellers from the word go, but internal combustion engines won't be killed off by the end of 2026 as previously reported.
Remember VW's plans to build 1,000,000 EVs a year by 2025? Well, the car maker from Wolfsburg is now aiming to roll out 15,000,000 cars based on the new MEB platform in the first wave. That calls for a continuous flow of money that will see Volkswagen cut costs by eliminating some of the ICE models from its lineup and curtail redundancies in various administrative departments.
VW will focus on EVs but gas-powered cars will still be a thing seven years from now
A few days ago, a report from Bloomberg came our way that stated, in short, that VW will send all of its cars that are powered by internal combustion engines into retirement by the end of 2026.
Now, Frank Welsch, Volkswagen's Head of the Technical Department, talked to Autocar to clarify Michael Jost's statement, that "we’re gradually fading out combustion engines to the absolute minimum,” which he made during the Handelsblatt auto-related summit in Wolfsburg. Welsch said that "It is not correct to say we will stop developing internal combustion engines from 2026."
Instead, Welsch pointed out that "What I think has happened is that people were talking about the 2040 date widely talked about for stopping selling ICE cars in Europe and then worked backward in a logical way." He added that "Europe is not the only market, other regions have their own regulations and requirements, and I can see us developing more and more efficient ICE cars long beyond the quoted 2026 date.”
So, now that we know that VWs with an ICE under the hood will still be offered in some corners of the world well into the 2030s, we can get back to what the manufacturer is doing to find more cash to pour into the I.D. family of models.
"By 2020 we will achieve three billion euros in cost savings, and now aim for a further three billion euros by 2023," Arno Antlitz, the board member responsible for finance at the VW brand, told a press conference in Wolfsburg, Germany, according to Reuters. How will they do that? Well, some models will disappear as VW aims for a more streamlined offering. Also, there will be some shaving going on in the administrative arms of the company as well as an effort to increase the output of the factories by 30% in just six years. This should see the company return a 6% profit three years earlier than in their original timeline - in 2022.
The $3.4 billion that is slated to be saved in two year's time will be joined by over $12,5 billion that will be invested in internal infrastructure, autonomous driving, EVs, and more. It's worth pointing out that out of those $3.4 billion, $2 billion should be scrimped by the end of this year alone.
The first model from the I.D. family will debut in the second half of next year and VW plans to flood the market with a plethora of crossovers although a few light trucks are also planned - think of the I.D. Buzz concept. Plans to team up with Ford are apparently still up, as is VW's wish to establish a new plant in the U.S. that will be focused on EV construction only.
Further Reading
Read our full review on the 2018 Volkswagen I.D. Vizzion Concept.
Read our full review on the 2017 Volkswagen I.D. Buzz.
Read our full review on the 2017 Volkswagen I.D. Crozz II
Read our full review on the 2017 Volkswagen I.D. Crozz
Read our full review on the 2016 Volkswagen ID Concept.
Updated facility to house EV production
