Volkswagen CEO Ralf Brandstaetter says the automaker has no plans to develop new internal combustion engines, according to a report by Automotive News Europe.
"At the moment, I don't expect a completely new engine family to be launched again," Brandstaetter told Automobilwoche, a sister publication of Automotive News Europe.
This follows Audi CEO Markus Duesmann’s recent announcement that the brand will stop developing new combustion engines and update existing ones.
Like Audi, Volkswagen will still further develop current combustion engines in order to meet upcoming emissions standards. Brandstaetter said the company will still need combustion engines for a certain amount of time and they need the sales of gas-powered cars to finance Volkswagen’s massive EV plans.
On March 5th, Volkswagen announced its Accelerate strategy: By 2030, the company aims to have 70 percent of the European EV market share and 50 percent of the EV market share in China and the US.
Niether Brandstaetter or Duesmann gave anykind of timeline, but Duesmann did say,
“Our customers will probably decide when the last combustion engine comes off the production line.”
In 2018, Volkswagen announced it would introduce its last combustion engine in 2026, but that seems to have likely changed. Volkswagen supplies engines to many sister brands including Skoda and Seat.
Volkswagen's EV Future
These announcements shouldn’t come as a surprise because if the German behemoth wants most of the EV market share in Europe and half in the US and China, it needs to devote a large amount of money and resources to battery cell production. Some predict the brand will need 300-gigawatt hours worth of battery cells by the end of the decade. Additionally, Volkswagen made a series of announcements during its Battery Day, including plans for a unified cell.
Source: Automotive News Europe