VW chief: A €20,000 electric car could arrive in the second half of the decade

Automaker Volkswagen has not yet made a decision on producing an electric car priced at €20,000 (approximately 490,000 Kč), group chief Oliver Blume said today at a conference hosted by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Blume is nevertheless convinced that the company could begin producing one in the second half of the decade.

The main lever for reducing electric car prices is lowering battery costs, Blume said. He recalled the company’s plans to produce a unified battery cell, which he said would halve battery costs.

Volkswagen unveiled plans in March to develop a fully electric car priced at €25,000, which is due to be launched by 2025. The electric car will have a range of 450 kilometres, and its battery will charge from 10 to 80 percent in about 20 minutes. The company said at the time that it was also working on a €20,000 car, but provided no further details.

„It is our duty to bring the right products to market at the right price,“ Blume said.

„After the first people interested in electric cars, we now need to convince consumers who cannot install a charging station at home to adopt this technology,“ he added. According to Blume, demand for electric cars is also being held back by inflationary pressures, a lack of charging infrastructure and the scrapping of government subsidies.

US automaker Tesla plans to produce a €25,000 electric car at its German plant near the village of Grünheide, not far from Berlin. Informed sources said two weeks ago that company chief Elon Musk had mentioned the plan to employees.