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reThe Volkswagen Group will once again significantly increase its investments in electromobility and autonomous driving. Equipped with a huge budget of € 73 billion, Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess wants to compete with US market leader Tesla for the crown in electromobility and connected cars. Over the next five years, the world’s best-selling automaker will invest € 35 billion in new electric cars and factory modernization, two billion more than previously planned for 2024. The Supervisory Board released the funds for this on Friday in Wolfsburg.
Another big part is digitization, where Volkswagen is doubling its spending to around 27 billion euros. “In the coming years it will also be important to assume a leadership position in vehicle software,” said Diess. He wants to turn Volkswagen into a mobility company that offers digital services in addition to electric cars.
Despite the crown crisis and falling demand, the Wolfsburg-based group is in a position to cope with the investments that have now been decided. “The financial starting point is solid as a rock in the context of the major challenges in the coming years,” said Chairman of the Supervisory Board Hans Dieter Pötsch. At the same time, VW is sending a clear signal to invest more in German plants despite structural change in the automotive industry (around € 20 billion of investments are planned over the next five years) and to manufacture various models in Germany despite higher costs.
The course for a future with electric batteries
VW boss Diess said Volkswagen set the course for a battery-electric future at an early stage and is a world leader with its electric cars. “In the coming years, it will be important to assume a leadership position also in vehicle software. According to the works council, investments in tangible assets of more than three billion euros flow only to the Wolfsburg headquarters. Volkswagen is also gathering all variants of the main Golf model at corporate headquarters.
The head of the works council, Bernd Osterloh, wrote in the magazine “Mitbestimmen”, which was distributed immediately after the meeting of the supervisory board, that “the employees and the state of Lower Saxony on the supervisory board had jointly managed to achieve stability and reliability with investments for the next five years. ” For example, the Lower Saxony plants in Hannover and Emden, which according to information from FAZ VW internally have so far been considered unprofitable, “with billions in investments on the way to electric mobility, ensuring jobs there long-term”.
Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD), who represents the state as the second largest shareholder on the supervisory board, said in Hannover that with his decisions in the planning round, VW will secure around 130,000 direct jobs. in Lower Saxony and many thousands more in the supplier industry. At VW Commercial Vehicles in Hannover, in addition to the VW Buzz, the electric successor to the legendary VW Bulli, SUV models will also be produced from 2024. “We will be fully on the attack for the next few years,” commented the president of the works council. Osterloh.
In planning, a total of almost € 4.5 billion will be allocated to light commercial vehicles. It is not only about the headquarters in Hannover, but also about the Polish locations or the expansion of the cooperation with Ford. A lot of money will be invested in preparing the ID electric bus. Buzz. Around 680 million euros have been reserved at the Hannover location for the production of the new high-class electric car (D-SUV) of various brands in three different variants.
The Emden plant, which will soon have to deliver the Passat to Bratislava, Slovakia, will receive around € 1 billion. The ID.4 small electric SUV is planned there from early 2022 and the Aero as an electronic successor to the Passat from 2023. For the Saxon locations in Zwickau, Dresden and Chemnitz, € 1.2 billion has been earmarked, mainly to expand the capabilities of the electric models and the Standardized Electrical Construction Kit (MEB).
Fresh money for subcontractors
Internal supply plants also get a lot of money for new investments. The transmission plant in Kassel received 1.3 billion euros, which is also mainly about components for electromobility and hybrid drives. In Braunschweig, where battery systems, axles and steering systems are produced, more than 870 million euros will be spent. The Salzgitter motor plant, on whose site its own battery cell factory is currently being built, will receive around € 800 million; According to the company, around 1 billion euros will go to battery technologies.
