By
Greentech Lead Team: Volkswagen plans to start making electric cars in 2014 in China and to ramp up to mass
production by 2018.
Initial EV output at Shanghai Volkswagen and FAW Volkswagen is
estimated at a few thousand vehicles, rising to 100,000 by 2018.
E-vehicles have been limited by cost batteries, and a lack of
economies of scale and models considered appealing to car buyers, but Neumann
said they were needed to reduce China’s pollution and reliance on oil.
“I am convinced e-vehicles will be a success in China
because I think it is desperately needed,” said the president and chief
executive of Volkswagen’s China operations, Karl-Thomas Neumann.
Volkswagen,
which has partnerships with SAIC Motor Corp
and FAW Group in China, would launch its first plug-in hybrid here in 2015, according to a report in
Economic Times.
Each of Volkswagen’s joint ventures would develop its own
e-vehicle. He did not specify whether the 100,000 EV output planned for 2018
was for each JV or a combined target.
The central government has declared the electric vehicle
industry a top priority, earmarking $1.5 billion per year for the next 10 years
to become one of the leading producers of clean vehicles.
It has named 25 cities including Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and
Shenzhen to lead the migration to green vehicles. However, demand for EVs has
been held back by a lack of models, limited charging facilities, high sticker
prices and safety concerns.