Volkswagen is increasing its focus on electric vehicles. The company announced plans to launch around 70 new electric vehicles in the next 10 years. Earlier, the German carmaker spoke of 50 models.
Volkswagen's electric models will be based on the Modular Electric Drive Toolkit (MEB). This is an architecture developed by Volkswagen as a unified basis for its electric vehicle models. The architecture was introduced with the presentation of the ID.BUZZ, an electric version of the Transporter van. In particular, the first generation of this minibus - the T1 - served as inspiration for this.
ID.BUZZ
The ID.BUZZ was first shown as a concept car at the 2016 Paris Motor Show. Reactions to the vehicle were so enthusiastic that Volkswagen announced in 2017 that it would actually bring the electric van to market. Both a passenger variant and van will be launched.
"It is an ideal concept for a van, especially for inner-city use," said Dr Eckhard Scholz, managing director of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, when announcing the model. "The I.D. BUZZ Cargo is very suitable for clean distribution traffic and will be a semi-autonomous Level 3 category vehicle."
Other models under development
Based on this EIA architecture, the Volkswagen Group is also currently developing several other electric models. For example, the company previously presented the electric crossover ID.CROZZ, the electric minibus ID.BUZZ and the electric sedan ID.VIZZION. Other brands within the Volkswagen group are also working on models based on the MEB architecture. For instance, SEAT recently presented the electric concept car el-Born and Skoda the Vision E.
To supply batteries for these and other electric models, Volkswagen has signed deals with LG Chem, SKI, CATL and Samsung. The company is also working with partner QuantumScape on solid-state batteries. In addition, Volkswagen announced that it will install 400 IONITY fast chargers along major (motor) roads in Europe, to be completed by 2020. 100 of these fast chargers will be installed in Germany, where a fast charger should be found every 120 kilometres. In addition, Volkswagen, through its subsidiary Elli (Electric Life), is pushing for home and office charging infrastructure.
CO2 neutral by 2050
Volkswagen has set itself the goal of reducing the lifecycle carbon footprint of its vehicles by 30% by 2025 compared to 2015. The EIA architecture plays a crucial role in this. The first examples of this 'new generation of electric vehicles' from the Volkswagen group will go into production this year. These include the AUDI e-tron and the Porsche Taycan.
The carmaker's carbon footprint must be completely neutral from production to administration by 2050. The company aims to do this by reducing CO2 emissions wherever possible and switching to renewable energy sources as much as possible. CO2 emissions that cannot be avoided the company wants to offset.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: Volkswagen
