As several countries, including Germany, lead a revolt against ending the heat engine by 2035, Volkswagen on Tuesday announced colossal investments in the electric and connected car. Despite this endowment raised up to 122,000 million euros in the next five years, the leading European automotive group aligns itself with a discourse that finds a certain echo on the other side of the Rhine: of course, yes to electricity, but also to synthetic fuels to facilitate this transition.
“The development of electric and synthetic fuels are not contradictory, that is evident in our figures and in those of Porsche”, stressed the head of Volkswagen Oliver Blume during the presentation of this new investment plan.
Thermal cars “will work for decades to come”
For him, these fuels under development remain an interesting avenue to decarbonise the existing vehicle fleet, in Europe and around the world:
“Our commitment is clear, we want to develop electric mobility to the maximum, it is the mobility of the future. But if you look at car production as a whole, (…) you have to think about what will happen to thermal cars: there are more than 1.4 billion of these cars on the roads today and this figure will continue to increase. These cars will be on the roads for decades to come,” recalls Oliver Blume.
In this context, “synthetic fuels offer a suitable alternative to quickly reduce CO2 emissions,” says Oliver Blume.
In 2022, Volkswagen sold 4.56 million vehicles worldwide, a figure 6.8% lower than in 2021 and its lowest level in 11 years. And if its electric vehicle deliveries increased by 23.6%, they represent only 7% of its global sales.
Source: BFM TV
