In the next five years, Volkswagen intends to align its development budget differently than before. Digitization and research into battery cells are to have a larger share. Around 180 billion euros in investments are planned by 2027. Around 68 percent of this is to flow into the areas of electrification and digital networking.
In the previous planning round for the next five years, Volkswagen still estimated around 56 percent of the total investment funds of 159 billion euros for future technologies. Both figures have now been revised upwards. That was necessary, because Volkswagen expects that by 2025 every fifth vehicle sold by the group worldwide will be an electric car – and the trend is rising sharply.
VW is building a battery gigafactory in Canada
Plenty of money is to flow into the development of the production of battery cells and the securing of raw materials for the group in the next five years. Up to 15 billion euros are earmarked for this. By 2030, its own battery brand PowerCo should generate annual sales of more than 20 billion euros. In Canada, PowerCo will build the first gigafactory outside of Europe. The cell factory will produce sustainable unit cells, the start of production is planned for 2027, according to Volkswagen.
Volkswagen intends to play a larger role than before in the North American market and intensify efforts to digitize cars in China. In its most important market, Volkswagen has had problems meeting the demands of young Chinese customers for connectivity in cars in recent years.
2022: VW with significantly increased profit
As with many other car companies, Volkswagen has had a good 2022. Although the number of cars delivered has fallen, the margin per vehicle has increased. Overall profit climbed by 22.6 percent to almost 2.65 billion euros. Sales in the main Volkswagen division rose by 8.7 percent to 73.8 billion euros. The development of car prices helped here. A scarce supply of new cars caused discounts to fall and prices to rise sharply.
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(mfz)
