Volkswagen to Produce only EVs in Europe from 2033

Volkswagen is planning to streamline production and improve productivity as it competes to dominate the electric vehicle market. As automobile companies switch gears to adopt electric mobility, Volkswagen is also committing to a date for manufacturing only electric vehicles in Europe.

From Volkswagen’s previous target of 2033-2035, the car producer is committing to an earlier date. In the upcoming decade, Volkswagen is looking to reduce the number of models on offer and increase the profit margin for all volume brands, including SEAT, Skoda, and Volkswagen, and several commercial vehicles, to 8 percent by 2025.

The premium brands of Volkswagen Group such as Audi and Porsche have boosted the results in the first half of the year, with Audi registering a 51 percent increase in the operating profit, and Porsche a 22 percent increase, compared to 8 percent drop at the volume brands of Volkswagen. The passenger cars of Volkswagen saw a 5.6 percent operative margin in the first half of 2022, up from 3.4 percent in the same period of 2021.

Volkswagen brand head Thomas Schaefer said that bringing vehicles from the volume brands into the same factory will save costs, and they have a lot of waste in the system, they can take out. Thomas Schaefer added that, this new strategy was important to achieve the goals of Volkswagen, which include manufacturing an entry-level electric vehicle for 25,000 euros or less. If people have 30-40 different battery cell and pack formats, it’s not manageable.