VW Group Boss Says It’s Too Early To Go All-In On EVs

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The transition to fully electric personal mobility won’t happen overnight – it’s definitely something everyone in the industry knows all too well. There is a huge effort on the part of all parties involved – automakers, governments, energy companies, climate organizations and consumers – to speed up the process, but many factors determine the speed at which full electrification takes place. Despite all the efforts, even the biggest players in the business think it’s too early to switch to electric vehicles.

Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess recently spoke at Financial Times Future Car Summit, where he said it was too early for the industry to switch to electric power alone. Diess explained that this issue is not related to customer demand as it gets higher and higher, but to the infrastructure that supports the creation and operation of EVs. Both of these processes lag behind the speed at which zero-emission vehicles are currently being developed.

“Everything will be there for growth, but it will take a huge investment and time to get there,” Diess said. “We need the right plants to modify or build, the battery production capacity available, and to build a safe and sustainable supply chain. Customers need the right infrastructure to deploy in a residence with a car.”

While it may be too soon to go electric, Diess seems to believe that the company he currently leads has the potential to become a world dominator when it comes to EV sales. During the summit, he expressed his vision of Volkswagen becoming the “world leader in EV sales by 2025” thanks to the huge investments made over the years. Diess even said he saw a “tight race” with Tesla, though he admitted he “didn’t expect our major US competitors to be so fast, and there’s a pace change in their manufacturing capabilities.”

Diess also confirmed Volkswagen sees great potential in the small electric vehicle segment and the conglomerate-sized trio of VW Polo of the Volkswagen, Cupra and Skoda brands is slated to arrive in 2025. All three models will be based on the MEB Small platform, which is currently in development, and Diess. believes “the demand is there and the margin is there for small electric cars to be profitable.”

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