VW Chairman Diess Forecasts EV Market Leadership

PARIS – Volkswagen Chairman Herbert Diess says the German automaker will soon turn the corner after its diesel-emissions cheating scandal last year and expects to become the market leader in electric vehicles when its strategy for the segment emerges in 2020.

“We’re getting things under control,” Diess proclaims here ahead of introducing the I.D., a concept EV expected to go on sale in 2020 with a range of 373 miles (600 km). It also leads the automaker’s shift to electrification away from diesel, where it boasted global leadership before the costly scandal broke.

“We are getting back on track. We are dealing with the current challenges,” Diess says at the Paris auto show, forecasting a sales gain this year and in 2017.

VW light-vehicle sales in Europe are flat with last year at 1.95 million deliveries through July, according to WardsAuto data. In the U.S., where VW also is wrestling with the scandal, sales are down 13% to 207,156 from 238,074. Billions of dollars in emissions-cheating fines are pending in both markets.

But the automaker intends to refashion its image and product portfolio in the coming years with a focus on electrification and advanced mobility technology and ventures, such as autonomous driving and ride-hailing services.

Diess, who also introduces an upcoming eGolf with 50% greater range to 186 miles (300 km), goes so far as to say its new rivals include luxury EV maker Tesla and technology giant Apple, which is dabbling in automotive.

“Our goal is to become the market leader in EVs,” he says. The automaker wants to sell 1 million EVs annually by 2025, the same year it sees fully autonomous driving technology hinted at in the I.D. joining the brand.

VW’s aspirations, however, are shared with a slew of other global automakers, including Tesla, General Motors and Renault-Nissan, which already have footholds in the space, as well as other European-based OEMs declaring EV programs at the show. Diesels also remain the dominant propulsion system in Europe.

Diess nonetheless calls the I.D., which is the automaker’s first vehicle off a new dedicated EV platform called MEB, essential to VW’s makeover.

“This car will be revolutionary,” he tells reporters after the concept’s unveiling.

He also admits VW faces several more years of restructuring before it thinks it can regain the global market leadership it controlled for years before the scandal.

“We have to assume three, four tough years ahead to restructure, get more profitable and competitive,” he says. “I think we are under way. This is the future and it begins in 2020, when we will have finished our hard work and a new age starts.”

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