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northAfter the launch of the ID.3 electric car, Volkswagen now wants to quickly add more battery models. Next week the automaker will unveil the largest ID.4, a battery-powered electric SUV that Ralf Brandstätter, CEO of the Volkswagen brand, confidently describes as the Group’s new “world car”. “The ID.4 will be delivered to customers this year,” Brandstätter said in Wolfsburg. “It will move us forward on our path to becoming the market leader in electromobility.”
In the face of increasingly stringent climate targets, especially in the EU, the VW Group is taking a massive step towards electric cars. After ID 3 and 4, the Skoda Eniaq, the Audi Q4 e-tron and the el-born of the Seat Cupra sub-brand will be launched on the market.
A VW ID.4 passes Neumarkt in Dresden on the occasion of the vehicle presentation
Source: dpa
75 new models with batteries are planned by 2025, and VW plans to sell 26 million electric vehicles by 2029. The basis of the car is the so-called Modular Electric Construction Kit (MEB) with drive train and batteries, on which they are all based. electric vehicles of the group’s brands for the mass market.
According to Brandstätter, the ID.4 will have a range of 520 kilometers with a battery charge of 77 kilowatt hours. The electric motor will be rated at 150 KW (204 HP), and in 30 minutes the car should be able to be filled with enough electricity for 320 kilometers at the appropriate fast-charging stations.
VW is targeting a superlative in its electric offense: en masse. And the group moves much faster than its competitors. Only 4 is expected to grow to 500,000 units per year by the end of 2025. According to plans, a total of one million of the other VW brand models will be produced each year.
By the end of the year, MEB-based production will have started at five Volkswagen plants around the world, including a completely new electric car factory in Anting, China. Three more plants will be added by 2022: Hanover, Emden and the US site in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The group is investing a total of 33,000 million euros in its electricity strategy.
The SUV segment is growing particularly strongly
The fact that the compact SUV is at the center of this strategy has to do with the evolution of the global passenger car market. The segment for these wagons has grown particularly rapidly over the years. SUVs are already the most popular vehicle variant in the US and China, and large cars are catching up fast in Europe as well.
VW expects SUVs to make up more than half the market by 2025. That’s why the group is planning larger electric SUV models, including the ID.5, which will hit the market next year. Thomas Ulbrich, head of electric mobility at VW’s dashboard, promises that the range of battery-powered vehicles will increase with the larger cars.
Compared to the competitor Tesla Y, which has a range of up to 500 miles, the ID.4’s value remains modest. However, Ulbrich is confident in himself: “I don’t think we are technologically lagging behind,” he says.
VW will continue to develop the ranges over the life of the vehicles. “For someone who doesn’t always drive long distances, it is questionable whether he has to carry the battery capacity with him for 800 kilometers.” Because more autonomy means more weight and, therefore, greater energy consumption.
In VW’s new electric world, it shouldn’t be generating more COtwo– generate emissions, but maintain climate neutrality. Additionally, the group offers customers complete packages, from home wall charging boxes to charging cards and applications for their own green electricity contract.
According to VW, the vehicles themselves are completely COtwo-Neutral manufactured. VW’s Zwickau plant, where the ID.3 has also rolled off the assembly line since August, runs on green electricity, and the battery cell production also has a TÜV seal of climate neutrality.
Large quantities make production profitable in the first place
The factory is still a long way from its target capacity of 330,000 cars a year. This year, also due to Corona restrictions, fewer than 100,000 vehicles will be built there. After all, VW has already sold the first 35,000 ID.3, which is positioned in the Golf class. Moving forward, it will be crucial for the group that these numbers grow rapidly.
As production in the electronic car plants becomes more profitable, they are better used at capacity. “If we build the ID.4 in large numbers, we will generate large economies of scale that will help generate a substantial contribution margin,” says Ulbrich. Then VW will be able to offer its cars at a correspondingly low price.
In fact, for most customers, price is the deciding factor when buying an electric car. In a survey on behalf of motor oil manufacturer Castrol, this point was even ahead of time and load range. Therefore, German consumers are willing to pay about $ 38,000 (€ 32,200) for a car with a battery.
The ID.3 is above this mark with list prices starting at 35,500 euros, but if you deduct the current luxury purchase premium of up to 9,000 euros, then it meets the willingness of local consumers to pay quite well, even with some extras.
In China and Japan, the willingness to pay exceeds $ 40,000. The survey surveyed 9,000 consumers in eight countries, including the US, China, Germany, Japan and the UK. How expensive the larger ID.4 will be for customers, VW won’t reveal until next week, when the car is officially unveiled.
Electric car sales are growing rapidly
The ID.4 is expected to reach the price range of the competitor Tesla Y (from 58,600 euros). The development in the automotive market also speaks in favor of the VW Group’s electrical strategy. After a slight recovery in sales figures in July, vehicle sales in most of the world fell again in August. Only in China were more cars sold than in the same month last year, in the United States and Europe, however, new registrations fell by almost a fifth.
On the contrary, sales of electric cars are growing rapidly. According to calculations by EY consultants, 170 percent more battery-electric cars and 355 percent more plug-in hybrids were reported in August in the five largest Western European markets, based on comparatively low numbers the previous year. .
Source: Getty; WORLD infographic
“Government support for the purchase of electric cars and plug-in hybrids is now enormous. That increases the demand, ”says Peter Fuß, partner at EY. Above all, plug-in hybrids would be purchased which, in addition to subsidies and high tax discounts, “have the decisive advantage that range is not a problem.” The market share of electric cars in Germany and France exceeds ten percent, but in Italy and Spain it is still below four percent.
Since the beginning of the year, 7.3 million cars have been sold in Europe, including gasoline and diesel, a decrease of one third compared to the previous year. In the US, the decline is 21.5 percent to around nine million vehicles, and in China eleven million vehicles were sold between January and August (down 16 percent).
Even VW won’t be able to untie itself from this drop anytime soon. But the group now has offerings in the future growth area of the market that differentiate it from its competitors.
