2020 Global: Volkswagen Electric Car Production Forecast

VW forecasts electric car production to reach one million cars by 2023 with Volkswagen producing 1.5 million electric ID branded cars by 2025.

Volkswagen forecasted electric car production of the ID family to reach 1.5 million in 2025.

Volkswagen forecasts that its electric car production will reach one million cars in 2023 – two years earlier than previously predicted. Volkswagen also predicts that it will produce 1.5 million vehicles worldwide from the new ID family in 2025. Volkswagen’s worldwide electric car sales in 2019 reached only 70,000 cars.

VW Electric Car Production Forecasts

Production of the electric-only ID.3 started in Zwickau in Germany in November 2019. Although first customer deliveries are only expected by mid-2020, Volkswagen is already prediction fast growth in worldwide electric car production and sales.

Production of the ID.3 started in November 2019 at the Zwickau plant in Germany that has been fully converted for this purpose. From 2021, up to 330,000 EVs will leave the assembly line each year, making Zwickau the largest and most efficient EV factory in Europe.

Volkswagen set a strategic target of producing one million electric cars by the end of 2023 – two years earlier than previously predicted. Furthermore, Volkswagen forecasted that it will produce 1.5 million electric cars worldwide in 2025. (BMW predicted a quarter of its cars sold in Europe by 2021 will be electrified, a third by 2025 and half by 2030.)

Volkswagen’s Electric ID.3 and ID Crozz Produced in 2020

The ID.3 presented in September 2019 launches an entirely new generation of all-electric vehicles for the Volkswagen group. The ID.3 is based on Volkswagen’s Modular Electric Drive Toolkit (MEB) and offers ranges from 330 to 550 kilometers (WLTP). The basic version of the model will cost less than €30,000. For the first time, Volkswagen also offered pre-booking for the ID.3. To date, over 37,000 customers have reserved an ID.3 and paid a pre-booking deposit.

Internationally, preparations for the production start of the ID. family are well underway in China and the USA. Pre-production of the ID. family has already started at the Anting plant in China.

The first all-electric SUV – the series production model of the ID. CROZZ – will celebrate its world premiere in the course of the year and production of this vehicle at the Zwickau electric car plant is expected to start in 2020.

Volkswagen and Electric Mobility

Over the next few years, Volkswagen intends to become the world market leader in e-mobility and is investing €33 billion in these efforts throughout the group by 2024, including €11 billion in the Volkswagen brand.

In connection with its electric offensive, Volkswagen has also moved into a number of strategic business areas. With its newly established subsidiary Elli, Volkswagen is forging ahead with the development of charging infrastructure. Elli already has more than 10,000 power customers. Together with its dealers, Volkswagen is also installing its own charging stations. By 2025, a total of 36,000 charging stations are to be developed throughout Europe at dealerships and plants.

The opening up of the Modular Electric Drive Toolkit (MEB) to other manufacturers is also a trailblazing approach. Ford will be one of the first automakers to use the MEB. From 2023, the company is to offer an MEB vehicle in Europe and expects to sell more than 600,000 cars within six years.

Volkswagen has also laid foundations for the development, testing and production of battery cells. A battery cell factory with a capacity of 16 gigawatt-hours is to be developed in Salzgitter from 2020. The start of production is planned for the end of 2023/beginning of 2024. For this purpose, Volkswagen has entered into a joint venture with the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt.

“2020 will be a key year for the transformation of Volkswagen. With the market launch of the ID.3 and other attractive models in the ID. family, our electric offensive will also become visible on the roads”, says Thomas Ulbrich, Member of the Volkswagen brand Board of Management responsible for E-Mobility. “Our new overall plan for 1.5 electric cars in 2025 shows that people want climate-friendly individual mobility – and we are making it affordable for millions of people.”

About the author:

Henk Bekker

Henk Bekker is a freelance writer with over 20 years of experience in online writing. His best-selling cars website has been reporting car sales statistics since 2008 with classic car auction prices focusing on the most expensive automobiles sold at public auctions in the past decade. He also owns the travel websites European-Traveler.com and Lake Geneva Switzerland. Henk holds an MBA from Edinburgh Business School and an MSc in Finance from the University of London.