Volkswagen challenges Tesla with an entry-level model
Buzz minibus goes to Hanover
Great news from German carmaker Volkswagen (VW) — Source Handlesblatt:
The Volkswagen Group is expanding the production of electric cars. A new entry-level model is to be produced in Emden in five years.
The new and hitherto unknown entry-level car, which will come from Emden in the future, is likely to be a particular challenge for Tesla. VW CEO Herbert Diess had already announced a few weeks ago that Volkswagen would offer an electric model at half the price of a Tesla. Probably he had already thought about the new ID CUV from Emden without explicitly mentioning the car.
Volkswagen wants to sell the new electric car for less than 20,000 euros. With the use of the new MEB electric platform, the Wolfsburg-based car manufacturer hopes to achieve significant productivity gains. Each new electric car is expected to be produced in less than 13 hours. With a conventional model, the production times are approximately twice as long. “This will make the production of such a car permanently possible even at a high-wage location like Emden,” said an insider in Wolfsburg. Approximately 200,000 units of this car are to be produced annually.
The new ID CUV will not remain the only electric model to be produced at the Volkswagen plant in Emden in the next decade. The VW Group is also preparing the production of the ID Aero in two variants there. This car is about the size of today’s Passat, but is also based on the new MEB electrical construction kit. With this second model, Volkswagen aims to achieve full capacity utilisation at the Emden plant, where annual production of a total of 300,000 is considered probable.
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