VW said its fleet-wide emissions in Europe stood at 99.8 gm of CO2 per km driven, roughly 0.5 gm short of the 2020 goal set by the EU.
Yang’s key takeaways:
- This development adds to uncertainty at the company’s board level, which has only recently emerged from the emissions scandal. CEO Herbert Diess sought to change the company culture, but faced series of setbacks in 2020 with battery plant shutdowns, tussles with powerful unions and software problems with the new Golf models.
- Volkswagen has already pledged to spend €33 billion on its EV business, an investment Diess hopes will eventually triple the company’s market capitalization to €200 billion and secure its future as a heavyweight that can compete against pioneers such as Tesla.
- The danger is that electric cars, which contain far fewer parts than combustion engine models, will be commoditized. It is a scenario Diess hopes to combat by owning the valuable customer data generated by vehicles that are ever more automated and connected to the web.