Like Volvo and Audi, Volkswagen intends to abandon the combustion engine vehicle market within the next decade. A transition to electricity that will start with Europe.
The VW brand of the German group Volkswagen wants to stop selling motor cars to combustion in Europe between 2033 and 2035 to switch to electric vehicles, leaving more time in other markets, including China, announced one of its officials. Under the pression increasingly strict anti-pollution standards, manufacturers automobiles world after another are setting timetables for the combustion engine.
« We will make our entire fleet neutral by CO2 by 2050 at the latest. In Europe, we will be leaving the vehicle market at thermal motor between 2033 and 2035 VW Sales Director Klaus Zellmer said in an interview with the Bavarian daily Münchner Merkur, available online Sunday. This exit will take place ” a little later in the United States and China. In South America and Africa, due to the lack of political framework conditions and infrastructure, it will take a little longer “, he added.
The VW brand had already announced at the beginning of the year to reach by 2030 an electric share in its European sales of 70%. “ As a builder of mass, VW must adapt to different speeds transformation in the different regions. Our competitors who sell vehicles mainly in Europe, for example, will certainly face a much less complex transformation (…) », Explains Mr. Zellmer to explain this less ambitious schedule than other manufacturers.
Audi and Volvo will also abandon thermal engines
So the high-end brand Audi, also a subsidiary of the Volkswagen group, announced last week that it wanted to stop producing vehicles with combustion engines by 2033, with a possible exception in China.
Among the most advanced in matter, the Swedish Volvo, a subsidiary of the Chinese group Geely, plans to withdraw from its catalog by 2030 all its combustion models, including hybrids. The whole group Volkswagen has planned to invest 46 billion euros over five years in its electric shift. On July 14, the European Union will unveil strengthened targets for reducing emissions of CO2 by 2030, as well as regulatory proposals, which will force many manufacturers to accelerate the reduction of their emissions and their transition to electricity.
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