Volkswagen is spending billions earmarked for EV plans on gas cars
- Volkswagen wants to keep building ICE cars
- It said it would spend two-thirds of its R&D budget on EVs
- The rest would go to keep gas cars competitive
Published on Jun 12, 2024 at 4:34 PM (UTC+4)
by Siddharth Dudeja
Last updated on Jun 13, 2024 at 6:25 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
Going all-electric might be the future we will see one day, but Volkswagen is yet another automaker that isn’t taking the transition too well — and it just put aside a chunk of its EV development budget to build more gas cars.
Earlier, the German brand committed to developing next-gen electric cars because that’s what’s trending these days.
But as of right now, it doesn’t want to step out of the combustion engine ring just yet.
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Volkswagen wants to keep its gas cars competitive
The automaker set aside $196 billion in 2023 for research and development of new vehicles.
Out of that large sum, it mentioned that it would use around two-thirds on ‘electrification and digitization.’
That, in simpler terms, meant EVs.
But nobody knew where the rest would go — until recently.
At a Reuters event in Munich, VW’s CFO and COO clarified that a third of that amount — around $65 billion — would be used to ‘keep combustion cars competitive.’
That’s a lot of billions, and it certainly makes you wonder what Volkswagen is up to.
Only a few years ago, the German automaker said it would go fully electric in Europe by 2033.
That would mean you would never see a new VW at a gas station pump when the time came.
After this statement, it’s certainly crystal clear the brand isn’t ready to say goodbye to internal combustion engines (ICE).
VW isn’t the only one having a hard time
Several automakers like Nissan had no difficulties shifting their portfolio to add more and more electrified cars.
On the other hand, some others didn’t do so well.
For instance, Ferrari just committed to keep making V12 engines until governments shut them down.
Brands like Volkswagen take pride in their ICE cars.
And after all these years, it’s fair that they wouldn’t want to drop everything to go all-electric within a handful amount of time.
It’s important to note that VW isn’t reluctant when it comes to creating EVs and plug-in hybrids.
It just also wants to keep focusing on gas cars while at it.
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