Currently reading: VW Group to invest £30bn in electrification, autonomy and future tech
Company CEO claims huge investment will lead to it 'reinventing the car'

The Volkswagen Group will invest more than £30billion in developing future technology including electric cars and autonomous driving systems in the next five years – with the firm’s boss claiming it is “reinventing the car.”

The investment in electric mobility, autonomous systems, new mobility services and digitisation was agreed in the VW Group Supervisory Board’s planning round for 2018 until 2022. The bulk of the £30bn will go towards autonomous tech and the electrification of the Group’s entire model line-up, an initiative announced at the Frankfurt motor show in September.

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“We are laying the foundations for making Volkswagen the world’s number one player in electric mobility by 2025,” said VW Group CEO Matthias Muller. “We are reinventing the car.“We are making targeted investments in digitalisation, autonomous driving, electric mobility and new mobility services by providing the necessary funds from our own resources.”

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The VW Group has pledged to electrify its entire model range – with at least one electric variant of every car – by 2030. To achieve that, the firm expects to spend more than £44.6bn on battery cells.

In the next five years, the firm will also alter its production network. Those moves will include the Volkswagen plant at Zwickau in Germany being converted into a pure e-mobility facility, building the European series of full-electric vehicles on the firm’s MEB electric platform.

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Notably, the £30bn investment plan does not include the Chinese market - which the Group cites alongside Brazil, Russia and North America as key to its future growth plans. Volkswagen has a number of joint ventures in China, and investment funding is considered separately.

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James Attwood

James Attwood, digital editor
Title: Acting magazine editor

James is Autocar's acting magazine editor. Having served in that role since June 2023, he is in charge of the day-to-day running of the world's oldest car magazine, and regularly interviews some of the biggest names in the industry to secure news and features, such as his world exclusive look into production of Volkswagen currywurst. Really.

Before first joining Autocar in 2017, James spent more than a decade in motorsport journalist, working on Autosport, autosport.com, F1 Racing and Motorsport News, covering everything from club rallying to top-level international events. He also spent 18 months running Move Electric, Haymarket's e-mobility title, where he developed knowledge of the e-bike and e-scooter markets. 

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fadyady 18 November 2017

Reinventing PR

If Volkswagen does anything admirable, it is indeed their collaboration with the car journalists. We have been listening to VW spending a gazillion billion on electric power train for years now without them putting anything half respectable on the road. Albeit whatever they manage to put on the road gets a surprising amount of praise from the most obedient journalists. Let's brace up for years more of pure PR BS from the car maker whose sole talent is spreading NOX lies. Enough talking the talk, Mr Muller. Now walk the walk or else take a walk.
Bazzer 18 November 2017

James

You shouldn't even write the quote when someone says something like "reinventing the car".  It's a crass and absurd statement to make, and doesn'' deserve quoting.  Car design (and powertrain) is evolving - it's as simple as that.  Don't repeat, verbatim, utterences that are just plain daft. 

LCGC 17 November 2017

So Matthias Muller says they

So Matthias Muller says they are “reinventing the car” - let us hope so as they cannot reinvent the lives of those people killed by the massive pollution that resulted from “dieselgate”. And before I am accused of exaggerating, an epidemiological study indicates the number of excess deaths in Europe resulting from dieselgate as far greater than the loss of life in Grenfell Tower.