Volkswagen announced its plans to accelerate e-mobility by targeting global EV sales volume of 150,000 cars in 2020 and increase it to more than a million by 2025. But the plan clearly shows how difficult it is for deep-pocketed automakers like Volkswagen to catch up with Tesla on the EV front.
“As early as 2020 we intend to sell 150,000 e-cars, of which 100,000 will be the ID. and ID. SUV,” says Thomas Ulbrich, Member of the Volkswagen Brand Board of Management, E-Mobility division. “Speeding up the shift to e-mobility will help us to meet the extremely ambitious CO2 targets that have been set in Europe, China and the USA.” – VW
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In the first three-quarters of the current fiscal Tesla has delivered 154,220 (Model S/3/X) units worldwide and the electric car maker looks all set to more than double its 2017 sales of 103K units.
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If Tesla becomes cash flow positive, it will allow the company to attract investments for its planned China Gigafactory which has the potential to take Tesla’s global production capacity closer to a million units by 2020.
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Tesla invested billions of dollars to build Gigafactory and its auto plant in Fremont. Though large automakers have access to vast sums of money, selling EV’s will remain a loss-making proposition for them until production reaches scale.
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For public auto companies, it’s a difficult pill to swallow as their electric cars will most certainly cannibalize sales of ICE cars.
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Hence they prefer to take a slow and steady approach to increase their EV penetration, allowing more time for Tesla to cement its lead in the EV space.
