Volkswagen To Go Fully Electric By 2033 To Avert The Strict Emission Norms

Volkswagen's CEO Thomas Schäfer, in an interview with Automotive News, revealed the brand's intentions to be carbon neutral by 2033. Back in 2021, VW's head of sales Klaus Zellmer announced that the German carmaker would be scrapping ICE vehicles and will be selling only EVs by 2035. Now, the brand is targeting to achieve it earlier.

However, Schäfer cleared that the aim of becoming a zero-emission brand applies to only the European region. The Volkswagen group, which also sells electric cars from its Audi, Skoda, Seat, Cupra, Porsche, Man, and other brands witnessed a huge jump in sales of 27 percent in H1 2022 globally. It delivered a total of 217,100 EVs during the period and about 59 percent of the share came from the units sold in Europe. Suffice to say, it has a stronghold in its home market and aims to have a complete EV car fleet by 2033.

Why Is Volkswagen Aiming To Be a Zero-Emission Brand?

The European Union is working towards finalizing a law that would ring a death knell for ICE-powered vehicles in the region by 2035. This implies that manufacturers won't be able to sell their ICE-powered or hybrid vehicles in the 27 countries of Europe. Moreover, the draft states that vehicles that run on fossil fuels will require a 55% cut in CO2 emissions from 2030 to 2035.

If finalized, these strict guidelines would be difficult to comply with, not only for pure petrol/diesel vehicles but also the vehicles with hybrid powertrains. Therefore, Volkswagen is going all-electric and is not so keen on developing ICE engines. It stopped selling diesel-engined passenger cars in markets such as India after its Dieselgate scandal. Now, it might have to pull the plug on its petrol-powered motors as well. However, this might be a blessing in guise, as the brand also will not have to worry about emissions or defeat devices with EV vehicles in 2033.

What Are Volkswagen's Plans Going Ahead?

Schäfer also talked about streamlining the production of EV vehicles. With an organized grouping of models per factory, the company is looking to make production more efficient and also reduce costs. Much like the MQB platform that spawned various ICE-engined vehicles from VW, Skoda, Audi, and others, the new modular MEB EV platform is likely to be utilized for future VW group EVs.

Volkswagen will be going on an offensive by adding ten new electric models to its portfolio by 2026. The brand currently sells ID.3, ID.4 (SUV), and ID.5 (SUV) electric cars in the market. With the mass-market ID.1 and ID.2 electric vehicles to be out by 2025, an electric car to replace the Passat, and a facelifted ID.3 in the reckoning, the brand is optimistic about toppling Tesla as the top EV seller by 2025.