Expand Consumers In The US, VW Plans To Release Affordable EVs

JAKARTA - To expand the electric car consumer market, Volkswagen (VW) plans to enter the cheapest electric vehicle (EV) segment in the United States (US), at prices below US$35.000 or around Rp550 million, within the next 3-4 years.

Reinhard Fischer, Senior Vice President and Head of US VW Group Strategy, confirmed that it will continue to expand its lineup of models for consumers in Uncle Sam's country.

"We are committed to launching electric vehicles in the US market, and those plans will not be reduced," said Fischer, as quoted by Reuters on Thursday, November 9.

Fischer also stated that plans for the affordable electric vehicle will involve production at US or Mexican factories. Assembly location options include Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the US, and Puebla in Mexico. VW is also considering the possibility of building this vehicle at a plant in South Carolina.

In addition, the German manufacturer is considering options for producing domestic battery packages to meet the requirements needed to obtain additional incentives under the US Inflation Reduction Act.

Previously, VW had announced plans to build battery cells in Canada to support EV production in North America, both for current and future models.

VW is known as a pioneer in driving production and sales of electric vehicles in the global market. They have also expressed plans to gradually stop the production and sale of more environmentally friendly internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in the coming years, focusing on using synthetic fuels (e-fuels).

By 2030, VW is targeting 80 percent of their sales in Europe to be electric vehicles, with plans to completely halt production and sale of ICE-engined vehicles a few years later.