Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume programs to drive back the automaker’s critical Trinity flagship EV project from 2026 towards the end of the decade and may well also scrap plans for a new factory in Germany, reports said.
VW said in March that it would to devote 2 billion euros in a new manufacturing unit close to its Wolfsburg headquarters to create electric vehicles with innovative self-driving options, with development thanks to start out in spring 2023.
The Trinity EVs would use the group’s new SSP software-led system, which VW suggests will enable Degree 4 autonomy, this means the car will be equipped to generate by itself.
VW had planned to officially get started manufacturing at the new factory in 2026. Blume desires to hold off this right up until 2030 since new software program will not be all set in time, Manager Magazin reported.
VW’s management nonetheless options to deliver the self-driving, extended-variety EVs to marketplace, a supply informed Reuters, adding the problem was no matter whether a new manufacturing unit was required in Wolfsburg or the assembly line at Wolfsburg’s main plant could generate them.
The SSP system will in all probability no for a longer time be introduced with the Trinity plant as at first prepared, Supervisor Magazin claimed.
The delays complicate VW’s bid to catch up with Tesla and lay bare the troubles of overhauling Europe’s greatest automaker, from retooling factories to correcting buggy computer software that has annoyed motorists of its electric cars.
VW “presently is using the opportunity to glimpse at all initiatives and investments and check them for viability,” the corporation reported in an inside concept to employees. A spokesperson declined to remark even further.
VW prepared to build a new plant to slash manufacturing occasions to match all those of Tesla at its new European factory close to Berlin by employing procedures these kinds of as significant die casting and cutting the range of factors in its automobiles.
Tesla claims it can presently deliver a Design Y SUV in 10 several hours at its manufacturing facility in Gruenheide in the vicinity of Berlin, while it can consider VW three occasions as extensive to make its ID3 whole-electrical hatchback.
The determination to insert a new manufacturing unit web-site was part of former CEO Herbert Diess’s thrust to make EVs more rapidly and grow to be additional productive. The govt, whom Blume replaced in September, previous yr unveiled aggressive techniques for EVs, software program and new-mobility choices.
Blume has to stroll again some of those targets for the reason that they are unrealistic, a VW resource stated, introducing that the information of the improvements are however becoming worked out.
Reuters and Bloomberg contributed to this report
