In the future, Volkswagen may offer a much cheaper electric vehicle in its lineup. According to Reuters, the automaker is working on a pure electric car around the size of a Polo under a project the company calls a “small BEV (battery electric vehicle)”. The publication says that Volkswagen is developing the vehicle for the mass market “in anticipation of tougher climate regulations” and the car will cost between 20,000 to 25,000 euros (the US $ 24,000 to $ 30,000).
That price point would make it more affordable than the ID.3 and the upcoming ID.4 and would become a direct competitor to one of Tesla’s upcoming models. During its “Battery Day” event in September, Tesla said it was making changes that would halve the cost of manufacturing battery cells for its vehicles. This would allow it to pursue its plans to make $ 25,000 EVs within the next three years. Since Reuters had only looked at Volkswagen’s BEV plans, and the company has yet to confirm it, we’ll have to wait long enough to see it and find out when it will be available.
In mid-November, Volkswagen announced that it was putting a large portion of its overall investment budget for digital and electric vehicle technologies. It originally planned to put only 60 billion euros (the US $ 72 billion) in electric and self-driving vehicle development over the next five years, but it raised that figure to 73 billion euros (US $ 86 billion). Both large investments and the development of an affordable electric vehicle could help the company to offer 300 EV models by 2030 as expected to do so.
Also, both can help it reach that point, which includes 60 percent of vehicle hybrids and EVs sold in Europe. The company has to achieve something by 2030 to be able to follow the EU’s stricter emission targets.
