Home » Software, autonomous driving and electric cars: the revolution of the Volkswagen Group

Software, autonomous driving and electric cars: the revolution of the Volkswagen Group

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The largest investment in the history of a private company – 73 billion euros from 2021 to 2025 for a specific technology – takes Volkswagen to the top of the world. A huge effort to transform the German Group into a software mobility based company with a strong focus on its powerful brands and global technology platforms. “We have set ourselves an objective strategy of becoming the global market leader in electric vehicles – and we are on track. We are now setting new benchmarks “, CEO Herbert Diess said during the presentation, obviously in streaming, of NEW AUTO, the strategy up to 2030.” Based on the software, the next much more radical change is the transition to much safer cars. , intelligent and finally autonomous. This means for us: technology, speed and scale will matter more than today. The future of cars will be bright! “

(reuters)

Such enthusiasm is justified by the fact that the Volkswagen group is setting new priorities to exploit the opportunities arising from the era of electric and digital mobility, with sustainability and decarbonisation as integral parts of its new strategy. By 2030 – just to understand – the Group expects to reduce its carbon footprint per car by 30% in its life cycle compared to 2018. In the same time frame, the share of electric vehicles should rise to 50%, while in 2040, almost all the vehicles of the German group should be zero-emission.

Other key points of this strategy are the agreement with Gotion High-Tech to industrialize the production of battery cells in Germany and the confirmation of Spain as an option for the third gigafactory.

But why this revolution? Why this huge effort? According to the calculations of the German company, the traditional car market is destined to decrease by more than 20% in the next 10 years. In parallel, electric cars are expected to grow rapidly AND that individual, car-based mobility is still expected to account for 85% of Volkswagen’s market and business.

From a technological point of view, a lot will depend on the platforms, on the base – the same for different cars – on which to build future product ranges. Thus, to improve and speed up its mechatronic platform skills, the Group will invest around 800 million euros in a new research and development facility in Wolfsburg, where the platforms of the future will be built. This too is something that has never been seen before: a huge working group all focused on the – exclusive – design of the platforms.

(reuters)

And then there is the enormous effort on software, the heart of the cars of tomorrow and which will allow the perfect integration of the “New Auto” project into the digital life of customers and will guarantee the German group even greater economies of scale. That is why Volkswagen Group’s automotive software company CARIAD aspires to develop the world‘s leading software platform by 2025, a kind of software backbone for all of the group’s cars. Currently, the entity is working on three software platforms: one that allows for over-the-air updates and updates, the second that will enable a variety of features including a new unified infotainment system and over-the-air updates for Audi and Porsche vehicles. And then the third – ready in 2025 – which will include a unified operating system for the vehicles of all the brands of the group. In short, software plays a decisive role in the transformation from a pure automotive company to a mobility group.

And then there is the chapter of batteries, charging infrastructure and energy services. Key success factors in the new world of mobility. Therefore, energy will be a key competence of the Volkswagen Group by 2030, with the two pillars “battery and system” and “charging and energy” under the roof of the new division of the “Technology” Group. All this in order to reduce the costs of accumulators by up to 50%, and then to reach 80% by 2030. In practice, this means finally making the electric car popular.

To do this, six gigabyte factories are deployed in Europe with a total production capacity of 240 GWh, another absolute record.

The first office is in Skellefteå, Sweden and will be managed by Northvolt. For the second location in Salzgitter, the Volkswagen Group yesterday signed an agreement with the Chinese cell specialists Gotion High-Tech as a technology partner for the start of production in 2025. As a third location, the Volkswagen Group intends to make Spain a strategic pillar of its electric campaign and is considering establishing the entire electric car value chain in that country.

Furthermore, Volkswagen intends to strengthen public charging infrastructures in Asia, Europe and America, reaching 10,000 charging points installed by 2025 (for this reason there is also a new agreement with the Italian company EnelX). And obviously it goes a long way on the front of autonomous driving which – in fact – will change the rules of the game. In fact, unmanned vehicles are the protagonists of four business areas: the autonomous driving system, its integration into vehicles, fleet management and the mobility platform. This is because the aim is to create the largest neuronal network of vehicles on the roads around the world. From public buses to Amazon shuttles, from private cars to those of corporate fleets: every type of mobility will use the same technology. Thus the Volkswagen Group will become the first mobility provider on the planet. A challenge just launched.

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