Volkswagen Adjusts Electric Vehicle Strategy

TapTechNews May 17th, following Ford, General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen has also quietly adjusted its previously aggressive electric vehicle strategy. The German auto giant is planning to expand the lineup of plug-in hybrid vehicles due to the slowdown in the growth rate of the electric vehicle market.

Thomas Schaefer, the new head of the Volkswagen brand, said: Customers now want plug-in hybrid vehicles, including in China and the United States. In addition, Volkswagen has recently abandoned the plan to build a 2 billion euros (TapTechNews note: currently about 15.7 billion Chinese yuan) electric vehicle factory in Germany and stopped looking for external investors for its battery subsidiary. However, Volkswagen still plans to build large battery factories in Spain and Canada.

Although Volkswagen is reconsidering its strategy of fully betting on electric vehicles, this does not mean that they have completely abandoned this technology. Volkswagen is still looking for European partners to jointly develop an affordable compact pure electric vehicle, and is also cooperating with Chinese XPeng Motors, hoping to regain the lost market share in the Chinese market.