Volkswagen is going all in on electric cars, with plans to build
battery factories in Europe, install a network of charging stations and slash
the cost of emission-free travel.
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That was the message as the German carmaker staged a so-called
Power Day to showcase its latest electric car technology. The event was
Volkswagen’s answer to Tesla’s Battery Day presentations, which draw intense
attention from investors and electric car buffs.
The session included a number of attention-getting
announcements, including a promise that Volkswagen would cut the cost of
batteries by up to 50 percent by the end of the decade, while slashing charging
time to 12 minutes. That would make electric cars cheaper than gasoline
vehicles and just as convenient.
Volkswagen also unveiled plans to build six battery factories in
Europe in joint ventures with suppliers. And by 2025, the company said, it
would have 18,000 charging stations on the continent operating in conjunction
with energy companies including BP. The British oil producer said it would
offer charging at its filling stations.
“Our transformation will be bigger than anything the industry
has seen in the past century,” Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen, said during
the two-hour presentation.
The event coincided with the rollout in the United States of the
ID.4, an electric SUV that is part of the first generation of Volkswagens
designed from the ground up to run on batteries and seen as serious challengers
to Tesla’s dominance in electric cars.
At least some analysts are starting to believe Volkswagen’s
hype. Swiss bank United Bank of Switzerland (UBS) issued a report this month
that ranked Volkswagen just behind Tesla in electric vehicle technology.
Tesla leads in battery technology and software, the UBS report
said, but the bank’s analysts gave Volkswagen high marks for its electric car
platform — the chassis, motor and other components that drive the vehicle
forward and carry the car body. The Volkswagen platform can be produced very
efficiently and is flexible enough to accommodate a range of body types, UBS
said.
Volkswagen is “a blueprint for what legacy carmakers need to
achieve in the years to come,” Patrick Hummel, a UBS analyst.
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