The current path to sales for EVs is pretty clear. Make a luxury car, make it fast, charge a bunch of money for it, and you’ll do alright. At least, that’s how Tesla’s doing it.
The next frontier for electric vehicles, though, is volume sales. It’s not enough to prove that electric vehicles work for the upper crust, EVs have to prove that they work for regular people, too. Tesla is struggling slightly with that, failing to make enough Model 3s or enough money to really make a strong case for the EVs as a mainstream product.
Volkswagen, though, has a mighty industrial empire backing its attempt to make electric cars for the people, but even it believes that its electric cars will cost more than its combustion cars. Initially, at least.
The initial cost of ownership for the first generation of VW’s electric cars in America will be a little higher than comparable combustion cars, says Hinrich Woebcken, President of VW’s US operations. But VW is trying to make sure that the cost of ownership is low enough to make up for that.
“Demand on the volume side has a lot to do with [the customer’s] business case on cost of ownership [being] comparable to an internal combustion car. That’s what we are aiming for,” Woebcken told us at the New York International Auto Show.
In Europe, VW has promised that the I.D. line of cars will cost about as much as its diesel cars. Since VW’s commitment to EVs kind of came as a result of there being no more diesels in America, they can’t quite make that same promise here.
“Since we don’t have diesel here in the US market anymore we see a surcharge on cost of the vehicle, but then looking at total cost of ownership it has a certain trade offer,” he said. “That’s why we’re working on an offer for the customer that makes sense for the customer to really look at this as an alternative compared to a combustion engine car.”
Woebcken admits that this will be difficult for the first generation of cars since the investment has been so large and the market still so unsure, but he sees it as necessary.
“Only then, this technology, long term, has a volume opportunity,” he argues.
The post VW Expects EVs to Cost More Initially, Less Over Lifetime appeared first on VWVortex.
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