Volkswagen plans to cease production of 40 automobile models and introduce more electric vehicles as the company focuses on going green.
The automobile company is struggling to recover its brand name since the September 2015 scandal which revealed that Volkswagen had cheated on emissions tests in its diesel engines. As the company’s annual general meeting is this week, Volkswagen leaders are unveiling its “TOGETHER – Strategy 2025” program, which could rebuild the company brand and fix a stock which has lost almost half its value from a year ago.
The Strategy 2025 program was unveiled on Wednesday in a press conference led by Volkswagen CEO Matthias Muller. Muller spoke about making the Volkswagen group more efficient and innovative, and promised to rebuild the trust lost in the aftermath of the diesel scandal.
Volkswagen’s Strategy is to promote electric vehicles sales. The company did reveal an all-electric concept van called the BUDD-e back in January, but details had been few at the time.
Now, Volkswagen plans to “launch more than 30 purely battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) over the next ten years,” which could account for a quarter of the global passenger car market. Volkswagen hopes to sell two to three million BEV vehicles in 2025.
As part of this measure, Volkswagen may be preparing to build a battery factory which would cost $11 billion in Germany. Electric car company Tesla, which has already made car history with its vehicles, also has its plans to build a massive factory in Nevada, which would let it become independent from battery producers like Samsung. Building a battery factory along with Strategy 2025 would show that Volkswagen is fully committed towards creating as many electric cars as possible.
In addition to discussing electric vehicles, Muller also announced in his press conference that Volkswagen will be creating a “cross-brand mobility solutions business.” This would see Volkswagen develop and acquire businesses related to mobility features beyond buying automobiles, such as ridesharing and robotaxis.
But while Volkswagen would like to focus on future innovation, the diesel scandal will not go away. The company has until June 28 to reach a final settlement proposal with vehicle owners who were affected by the scandal.
