VW remains confident that electric vehicles will prove to be the future of the automotive industry, despite a recent slowdown in demand for them in many parts of the globe.
Ever since Dieselgate almost a decade ago, VW has dramatically ramped up its investment in EVs and brought several zero-emission models to the market already. While recently speaking at the Paris Motor Show, VW sales and marketing boss Martin Sander said that although the future is electric, VW will continue offering ICE models for as long as customers demand them.
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“The ICE market globally is still that big that we can’t put an end date to ICE development today,” he said. “Of course, sooner or later, there will be an end date, determined by customer demand. As long as we see customers demanding ICE vehicles, we will have an offer. Sooner or later, there will be an end date, but I think it’s too early to say when that is going to be, especially from a global perspective.”
While speaking with Autocar, Sander expressed some frustrations at governments that haven’t yet fully committed to an EV-only future.
“I would wish for politicians to recognize that and just clearly commit to the fact that this is going to be the future and take all the doubts away from the consumers,” he said. Sander added that he feels the automaker has done its part by “investing many billions in new vehicles, a complete line-up of vehicles on new platforms which we’re offering globally.”
As VW continues to sell ICE and EV models, Sander said there will be more of a convergence in the designs of its models. For example, the upcoming ID.2 will have a design more reminiscent of the brand’s ICE models than some of its recent EVs.
“I think it’s really important that we have a clear Volkswagen design language,” he noted. “Going forward for the next launches, you will see much more clarity in the way Volkswagen vehicles are designed.”
