Story at a glance
- Volkswagen is shifting its focus to carbon-neutral vehicles over the next decade.
- Company leadership is betting on automated driving to be the next big trend and investing in software development.
- The company netted more than $260 billion in global sales in 2020.
Auto manufacturer Volkswagen announced a new initiative centering software-based features as the company transitions towards cleaner energy.
Company officials announced in a press release that Volkswagen plans to reduce its carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2030, keeping in line with the Paris Agreement’s goal to keep global temperatures from rising by 2 degrees Celsius.
Within this timeframe, the company also aims to increase the number of battery-powered cars and vehicles in its fleet by 50 percent in 2030. In the years leading up to 2050, Volkswagen says it will be climate neutral across all of its operations.
“We set ourselves a strategic target to become global market leader in electric vehicles – and we are well on track. Now we are setting new parameters,” said Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess during the presentation of NEW AUTO, the Group’s strategy through 2030.
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To help with this transition, the company will rely on new software features installed in their cars. Most of the new features will be operating systems included in the company’s vehicles, with an emphasis on automated driving features.
Developed by the company’s software branch, CARIAD, the software systems are slated to be installed as the “backbone” of Volkswagen cars by 2025.
“We intend to install industry leading platforms across strong brands, to be able to have more scale and capture even more synergies in the future”, CFO Arno Antlitz said in the announcement. “We will scale our BEV-platforms, we want to develop a leading automotive software stack. And we will continue to invest in autonomous driving and mobility services.”
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Volkswagen has allocated more than $86 billion in funding to implement these and other future technologies between 2021 and 2025, increasing the company’s investment in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and further digitization.
In 2020, the company earned more than $260 billion in global sales revenue, with a company-wide emphasis on setting up battery manufacturing plants to further the company’s BEV range and installing large software systems into its vehicles.
Other major car companies have taken the plunge into investing in clean energy and battery solutions, including General Motors, which pledged carbon neutrality by 2040.
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