VW plans to phase out combustion engines

Focus on electric drive

The Volkswagen group wants to get out of the combustion engine business. But it will take around seven years before this is the case. Michael Jost, chief strategist at VW, told the magazine “Handelsblatt”: “The last product launch on a combustion platform will begin in 2026”.

The focus will then be on electronically driven vehicles. In this way, the company wants to ensure that the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement can be met.

According to Jost, this can only be achieved if no cars with diesel and petrol engines roll over the roads from the year 2050 on. The last VW vehicle with a combustion engine shall be sold in 2040 – in about 20 years.

VW wants to become greener

By 2023, the company plans to invest around 44 billion euros in electric mobility, autonomous driving and digitization. The majority will be e-mobility (about 30 billion euros). This was announced by CEO Herbert Diess in November.

After the diesel scandal, driving bans in German city centers and class action suits against the company, the future of VW shall be greener. But it will still take some time before this is actually the case. At the beginning of the 2030s, the last models with gasoline or diesel engines shall be launched. Five years earlier, in 2025, the development of these models will begin – they will be the last models with conventional engines.