VW Says Its Next Generation of Internal Combustion Engines Will Be Its Last

Stick a fork in the internal combustion engine. It's about done.

Pretty much every major car company is planning a big pivot to electric vehicles in the coming years, but few are going as big as the Volkswagen Group. It’s planning nearly 30 cars on one platform alone by 2022, and more on other EV architectures in development like the Porsche Taycan. So how does VW balance that with developing more gasoline and diesel cars? Simple: It doesn’t.

Bloomberg today reports that Volkswagen’s next generation of internal combustion engines, due out starting in 2026, will be its last. After that it will focus primarily on EV development.

VW and its brands won’t go cold turkey, of course. According to this story, the plan is to continue revising conventional engines as necessary, especially for developing markets that lack a charging infrastructure. Just don’t expect all-new ones in the decades to come:

“Our colleagues are working on the last platform for vehicles that aren’t CO2 neutral," Michael Jost, strategy chief for Volkswagen’s namesake brand, said Tuesday at an industry conference near the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. “We’re gradually fading out combustion engines to the absolute minimum."

[…] VW will continue to modify its combustion engine technology after the new platform is introduced next decade. After 2050, there may still be some gasoline and diesel models in regions where there is insufficient charging infrastructure, according to Jost.