The Volkswagen group is relaunching innovation, software, electric cars, software and even robotaxis with a 63 billion plan. The number one of the group, Herbert Diess, has unveiled the new strategy for 2030, a plan that he christened New Auto, aims to support and evolve the car as the main means of individual mobility that according to Diess in 2003 will be electric, autonomous and strongly shared. And here the software will be more and more important. According to the top manager of the first European group, the automotive market will be worth over 5 trillion dollars in 2030, over 3 times the value of smartphones. «We are selling – says Diess – an ever greater interest from manufacturers of digital devices an ever greater interest in the car. They want to enter the sector ». Diess’s reference to the threat from Apple that could be evident (with a soap opera that has lasted for years) and to that of Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone giant that has put 10 billion on the electric car.
According to the number one, the Wolfsburg group will be the leader in the electromobility market and by 2030 the Wolfsburg giant wants to convert half of the offer of its models into battery-powered cars. This is what the CEO, Herbert Diess explained today, presenting the group’s strategy to “New auto until 2030”. Over the course of this decade, the impact of the fuel engine must drop by 30%, in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement. Diess also explained that the car “will be autonomous” and that this “will also affect private traffic”, with an improvement in safety conditions: “Virtual traffic will be much safer than today,” he said. “And on board in a car you can chat with friends and watch TV”.
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Ssp electric platform, ready for 40 million vehicles
From 2026, the Volkswagen Group will be able to count on the new Ssp platform (Scalable Systems Platform. After the Meb (Modular Electric Drive Kit) platform and the Ppe (Premium Platform Electric), SSP represents the next generation of fully electric, fully digital and highly Scalable. In the future, it will be possible to build models of all brands and segments on the SSP: more than 40 million cars of the group during its life cycle. Another strong point of the new SSP platform is the provision for autonomous driving.
. At the same time, significant economies of scale are achieved, while also reducing development complexity and costs. By combining different modules with platforms of various sizes, the group’s brands also have a number of opportunities to differentiate themselves. From 2025, Audi’s Artemis project will use significant SSP modules for the first time. In 2026, Volkswagen will introduce this technology to the high-volume segment with its first model based on the SSP, the “Trinity” project.
The New Auto 2030 plan
Volkswagen with the new plan is setting new priorities to exploit the opportunities of the electric and digital age of mobility, with sustainability and decarbonisation as integral parts of the new strategy. By 2030, the Group plans to reduce its carbon print by 30% (compared to 2018), in line with the Paris agreement; the share of battery electric vehicles is expected to rise to 50%, while by 2040 almost 100% of all new vehicles are expected to be zero-emission; by 2050 at the latest, the Group aims to operate in full climate neutrality. Profits and revenues are expected to gradually shift to electric vehicles, then to software and services, enhanced by autonomous driving. The traditional market is destined to decrease by more than 20% in 10 years; with an estimated € 1.2 trillion, by 2030, software-enabled cars could add about a third to sales of traditional and electric ones, doubling the mobility market.
Cost reduction and scaling will improve power margins, parity is expected to be achieved within the next 2-3 years. Volkswagen has already allocated 73 billion for future technologies from 2021 to 2025, equal to 50% of total investments, but intends to increase it in electrification and digitalization. The commitment to cost reduction remains.