Photo: Volkswagen
For the better part of the year, Volkswagen has been hard at work detailing how its offensive of electric vehicles is to shape the world of tomorrow.
Mumbo-jumbo aside, we slowly became convinced the Germans are serious about an electric future. But how wrong were we about the scale of VW’s seriousness!
Several times during the year, VW said its new MEB platform, purpose-built for electric vehicles, will underpin 10 million new cars over the following years.
That number seems to not have been enough, as this week, at the MEB Supplier Event organized by the carmaker, that number significantly grew to 15 million cars to be built until the platform will become obsolete.
What’s more, Volkswagen committed to investing 9 billion EUR in the ($10.2 billion) in the development of the future ID family of electric cars.
What changed? After all, we’re talking about 5 million cars, not a couple of thousands.
Hard to say. In the statement that announced the change in the plan, Volkswagen avoids talking about the reasons that lead to this decision. But it did says that it plans on selling about 1 million electric cars per year starting as soon as 2020.
“We are now entering the decisive phase. In about 12 months, the new ID. will usher in a new era for Volkswagen, comparable with the first Beetle or the first Golf,” said in a statement Thomas Ulbrich, Volkswagen executive in charge with e-mobility.
“We are preparing for this event extremely carefully together with our partners.”
MEB is a modular car platform, an evolution of the MBQ that drops the design needed for transverse, front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout and which can be used on various types of cars, ranging in size from SUVs to hatchbacks.
The configuration of the platform will allow the deployment of batteries with different capacities for ranges that can be more than 550 kilometers (341 miles).
Several times during the year, VW said its new MEB platform, purpose-built for electric vehicles, will underpin 10 million new cars over the following years.
That number seems to not have been enough, as this week, at the MEB Supplier Event organized by the carmaker, that number significantly grew to 15 million cars to be built until the platform will become obsolete.
What’s more, Volkswagen committed to investing 9 billion EUR in the ($10.2 billion) in the development of the future ID family of electric cars.
What changed? After all, we’re talking about 5 million cars, not a couple of thousands.
Hard to say. In the statement that announced the change in the plan, Volkswagen avoids talking about the reasons that lead to this decision. But it did says that it plans on selling about 1 million electric cars per year starting as soon as 2020.
“We are now entering the decisive phase. In about 12 months, the new ID. will usher in a new era for Volkswagen, comparable with the first Beetle or the first Golf,” said in a statement Thomas Ulbrich, Volkswagen executive in charge with e-mobility.
“We are preparing for this event extremely carefully together with our partners.”
MEB is a modular car platform, an evolution of the MBQ that drops the design needed for transverse, front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout and which can be used on various types of cars, ranging in size from SUVs to hatchbacks.
The configuration of the platform will allow the deployment of batteries with different capacities for ranges that can be more than 550 kilometers (341 miles).
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