German automaker Volkswagen is planning to invest more than €10bn by 2025 for the development and production of electric cars and plug-in hybrid cars in China.
The investment will be made by Volkswagen Group China and its joint venture partners in the industrialization of e-mobility between now and 2025.
The company plans to launch more than 20 further new energy vehicles (NEVs) between 2020 and 2025, creating a NEV portfolio of about 40 locally produced models in China in the next seven to eight years.
Volkswagen Brand's existing model offering is completely bring renewed and expanded. The brand plans to offer a range of over 10 NEV vehicles by 2020, based on existing models like the e-Golf, which will come to market in early next year.
It will feature an integrated, China-specific charging app. From 2020, the completely new I.D. family of electric-only cars will form the core of Volkswagen’s electric model portfolio in China.
China has the largest market for electric cars anywhere in the world and now the government is motivating automakers to produce the cars in the country itself.
It is estimated that China buys about 50% of electric cars in the world. And, as per investment firm East Capital, the Chinese Government is planning to completely phase out cars running solely on fossil fuels, although the date has not been officially announced.
Volkswagen board of management member Jochem Heizmann said: “China is leading the way to the final breakthrough in the adoption of e-mobility and Volkswagen Group China is determined to be at the forefront.
“Together with our long-term joint venture partners, SAIC VOLKSWAGEN and FAW-Volkswagen, and our new cooperations, we are transforming the future of mobility and, in regard to the needs and demands of our customers, we will deliver.”
But in September, the government had come out with a set of emission rules and delayed a credit-score programme for production of electric cars and had given automakers more time to prepare for a planned phase out of fossil-fuelled vehicles.
And, under the new policy, automakers must have a new energy vehicle score of at least 10% from 2019, which will rise eventually to 12% in 2020, Business Day reported.
The aim of Volkswagen is to sell at least 400,000 new energy vehicles per year in the country by 2020 and 1.5 million per year by 2025. The company claims that some of the upcoming models will have a range between 400 and 600km on a full single charge.
