VW promises shift to focus on electric and hybrid vehicles following emissions scandal
Wed 14 October 2015
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Announcing £750m of spending cuts to help pay for the product recall following the emissions scandal, a senior Volkswagen Group executive says that the company will turn its focus to electric and hybrid vehicles and revamp all diesel cars and vans to feature cleaner exhaust emissions systems. Meanwhile, Volvo has also announced it will be introducing electric variants for all its models.
Herbert Diess, Chief Executive of the VW brand, said he aims to overhaul the division’s strategy. The next version of the luxury Phaeton saloon car will be electric and VW will develop a standardised electric toolkit to fit all passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.
Diess (quoted in The Guardian) said: “The Volkswagen brand is repositioning itself for the future. We are becoming more efficient, we are giving our product range and our core technologies a new focus, and we are creating room for forward-looking technologies by speeding up the efficiency program.
“We are very aware that we can only implement these innovations for the future of the Volkswagen brand effectively if we succeed with our efficiency program and in giving our product range a new focus.”
Meanwhile, Volvo has also announced a comprehensive electrification strategy which will see plug-in hybrids introduced across its entire range and a fully electric car on sale by 2019.
The announcement forms part of a new strategy for Volvo, which says it expects electrified vehicles to account for 10% of its total car sales by 2019.
It makes Volvo one of the few carmakers with two new vehicle designs aimed at supporting plug-in and pure EV powertrain configurations.
Håkan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars (reported by Edie), said: “We believe that the time has come for electrified cars to cease being a niche technology and enter the mainstream. We are confident that in two years’ time, 10 per cent of Volvo’s global sales will be electrified cars.”
Volvo’s plug-in hybrid scheme will be implemented across versions of its 90 and 60-series larger cars such as SUVs and Twin Engine All-Wheel Drives as well as continuing the hybrid versions of the sedans.
Volvo will introduce a new range of smaller 40-series cars that will be designed from the outset for electrification.
Dr Peter Mertens, senior vice president for research and development said: “We have come to a point where the cost versus benefit calculation for electrification is now almost positive. Battery technology has improved, costs are going down, and public acceptance of electrification is no longer a question.”
In a separate development, Toyota recently announced a new set of six sustainability challenges to be incorporated and completed by the company by 2050. This included introducing improved recycling rates into the sector and reducing emissions by 90%.
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