He added that VW couldn’t drop combustion engines entirely just yet, as the infrastructure for electric vehicles isn’t in place.
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Volkswagen has no plans to ditch diesel engines and isn’t anxious about the rising threat of Tesla.
Now, it has shown an update to one of those concepts at the Frankfurt motor show, the Volkswagen ID Crozz utility vehicle that debuted in April at the Shanghai auto show.
“We will become more electric after 2020 worldwide, but also in the U.S.”, Diess said. This is not some vague declaration of intent.
Called I.D. CROZZ II Concept, the study retains the overall shape of the original version but looks more production-ready thanks to the modified designs of the front and rear ends that feature new LED headlights and taillights.
Volkswagen has previously vowed to spend a whopping 10 billion euros in their effort to bring electric cars and completely shift to that market by the year 2025.
VW is now seeking a partner to supply it with over 50 billion euros (about $59 billion) worth of batteries, which will be used for new models based on the MEB platform for electric cars. According to motor industry sources, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi and Volkswagen are all displaying their own next-generation electric cars to the public.
Also set to appeal to buyers will be the range of assistance systems available on the vehicle, including Front Assist and Lane Assist as standard and an optional Traffic Jam Assist system.
The Volkswagen Group will launch 80 new electrified models between its brands by 2025 – and will offer an electrified version of every model the company sells by 2030.
“Customers want clean vehicles”, VW chief Matthias Mueller told the BBC at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Expect EPA range in miles to be half of that, maybe less.
By 2025, the company estimated that one in four of all of its vehicles could be powered exclusively by electricity, equating to up to three million cars a year.
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VW has concepts for five fully electric cars covering most of the relevant segments with a plan to start sales in the United States in 2020 and 2021, he said. With their big cars, German automakers are particularly reliant on diesel in their home market of Europe and had been banking on the fuel-efficient engines to help meet ever tougher emissions rules that will tighten further early next decade.
