Category: Volkswagen

Volkswagen Ramps Up E-mobility Spending to $59 Billion by 2026

FRANKFURT—Volkswagen on Thursday said it would ramp up spending for battery-powered electric vehicles by around 50 percent to 52 billion euros ($59 billion) by 2026 as part of the group’s far-reaching transformation. The investment is part of Volkswagen’s new revolving 5-year spending plan, which foresees total investments of 159 billion euros in the 2022–2026 period,…


Volkswagen Expects Battery, Raw Material Drive to Cost up to $34 Billion

FRANKFURT, GERMANY—Volkswagen’s planned European battery cell plants and securing vital raw materials will cost as much as 30 billion euros ($34 billion), board member Thomas Schmall said, putting a price tag on the expansion for the first time. Schmall, who is in charge of technology at Europe’s largest carmaker, said in an interview at  the…


Volkswagen Sees Europcar Deal as Attractive, Quashes Hopes for Higher Bid

FRANKFURT—Volkswagen is convinced that its 2.9 billion euro ($3.3 billion) offer for France’s Europcar, made as part of a consortium, fairly reflects the firm’s value, a senior executive said, pouring cold water on hopes for a higher bid. “With a takeover premium of 30–40 percent, depending on the reference point, we have presented a very…


Apple Global Battery Development Chief Moves to Volkswagen

SAN FRANCISCO—Apple’s global battery development chief, Ahn Soonho, has moved to Volkswagen to lead the automaker’s development of electric vehicle batteries, according to his Linkedin profile. This is the second time in recent months that an Apple executive has left for an automaker. Apple lost its head of car project, Doug Field, to Ford Motor…


German Court Says Volkswagen Should Have Published Engine Plan That Sparked Dieselgate

BERLIN—Volkswagen should have gone public in 2008 with the engine plan that sparked its diesel emissions scandal, a German court said on Thursday, as it set out its views on a test case brought by investors against the automaker. Volkswagen, which admitted in 2015 to cheating U.S. diesel engine tests, said it had fulfilled all…


US Supreme Court Rejects Volkswagen Appeals Over Emissions Tampering

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Volkswagen AG’s bid to avoid lawsuits filed by officials in three states seeking damages stemming from the German automaker’s diesel emissions cheating scandal. The justices refused to hear appeals by VW and German auto supplier Robert Bosch LLC of a lower court ruling allowing Florida’s Hillsborough County and…


Volkswagen CEO Tells Staff There Are No Plans to Cut 30,000 Jobs

HAMBURG—Volkswagen has no plans to cut 30,000 jobs, CEO Herbert Diess told staff in an internal video message, hoping to fix his damaged relationship with the carmaker’s works council that deteriorated further in recent weeks. Diess said he was in talks with labor representatives on how the company’s Wolfsburg site, which the 63-year-old says lags…


This OTC Automaker Stock Riding EV Momentum Has Better 1-year Returns Than Apple, Nio, and GM

German automaker Volkswagen Group’s (VWAGY) over-the-counter stock has fetched far more handsome returns over the past year than U.S. tech giant Apple Inc. and Shanghai, China-based electric automaker Nio Inc. Just as rival legacy automakers, Volkswagen is dedicating billions of dollars and setting a tighter deadline to switch to a fully electric vehicle portfolio. Volkswagen…


Volkswagen CEO: We Will Keep Up With Tesla but Not Without Cuts

FRANKFURT—Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess on Thursday said he was confident that Europe’s largest carmaker could keep up with Tesla, but added this would require further cost cuts, including headcount reductions at its Wolfsburg site. Tesla is planning to open its plant in Gruenheide near Berlin, its first gigafactory in Europe, this year although no…


Edmunds: Volkswagen Taos vs. Chevrolet Trailblazer

The Volkswagen Taos and Chevrolet Trailblazer are two of the latest in a growing crowd of extra-small crossover SUVs. These entry-level crossovers provide lots of utility in a relatively small package and offer many features found in larger SUVs. Cutting back on size doesn’t mean cutting back on convenience. Chevrolet introduced the Trailblazer for 2021….