Volkswagen to Invest 482 Million Dollars for Electric Vehicles

Volkswagen will invest 460 million euros ($482 million) in its Wolfsburg plant until the beginning of 2025, with most of the funds to be spent on the production of the electric ID.3 model. By 2025, after the start of full production of the compact car, an additional all-electric model in the SUV segment will be produced in Wolfsburg on the MEB platform, an electric-only platform used since 2019.

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Volkswagen Prepares to Spend Millions on Electric Vehicles

The automaker said its electric drive kit, which includes the structure and design of a vehicle, has been adapted into a new version, now to be called MEB+, that will allow faster charging times and longer ranges. Retooling production sites in Wolfsburg, which employs about 60,000 workers building models such as the Golf, Tiguan and Touran, to make electric vehicles was the top item on the labor council's agenda amid fears the plant could lose relevance with the shift to electric mobility. Production at the flagship plant has been on a downward trajectory since 2015, when it produced around 800,000 vehicles, and has fallen below 400,000 a year since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The automaker will decide by February whether to produce a new Trinity electric sedan at its main Wolfsburg plant or build a new factory nearby for the model. Schaefer said Wednesday that the new SUV model will be built on top of the automaker's existing electric fleet. "This is the largest vehicle segment worldwide, including our beloved Tiguan. The new model will add to our best-selling ID.4 and ID.5 models and expand our market position," he said. The timeline for the production of the ID.3 is on track. Partial production is expected from 2023 and full production in 2024.