Volkswagen is in such hot water with our country?s environmental regulators that it has had to overhaul the entire company, all across the world. The diesel emissions scandal, which may cost the company $10 billion in fines and buybacks alone, is the impetus behind a new nine-year strategy meant to appease government regulators and make up for all the money it?s about to lose.
The crux of the plan, dubbed ?TOGETHER?Strategy 2025,? is electric vehicles. Lots of them. By 2025, Volkswagen will be selling 30 battery-electric vehicles across its 12 divisions. The focus will be on electric passenger cars, which Volkswagen believes will comprise between 20 and 25 percent of its overall worldwide car sales.
Remember VW?s previous goal of achieving 10 million sales by 2018" It reached that number in 2014 and then dipped slightly in 2015, to 9.93 million vehicles. The 2025 target is now a range from 10 million to 12 million. By Volkswagen?s count, EVs?not plug-in hybrids or hybrids, but pure EVs?will reach at least two million annual sales in just nine years.
To finance that plan, in the face of the cash bleed from the diesel-emissions scandal, there will be cuts elsewhere. Over the coming months, each of the company divisions will release its own strategy detailing exact budget and model cuts. You can bet, however, that the current 340 model variants will shrink. The parts business may be spun off, as General Motors did with Delphi. And lots of people probably will be laid o...