Volkswagen CEO: 'We Have Sourced Batteries for 50 Million Electric Cars

VW id platform

Volkswagen has revealed that it has plans to manufacture 50 million electric vehicles on its MEB modular electric vehicle platform, and has already set aside â‚¬50 billion ($56 billion) for the purchase of electric vehicle batteries.

Volkswagen stated in September that it aspires to sell one million EVs annually by 2025, which Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess stated will start in 2020 with sales of its compact I.D. electric hatchback.

"The [MEB] platform is already booked for 50 million electric cars," said Diess in an interview with Automotive News. "We have sourced the batteries for 50 million electric cars, so this is a huge momentum coming, and probably from a volume piece, I think we have the best setup strategy for the electric vehicles to come."

"The first car we will be launching next year, early 2020, will be the I.D., the size of a Golf, but because it's a full-electric platform, it has the interior space of a Passat," he added. "It has 400 to 600 kilometers (249 to 373 miles) of range, fast acceleration, fast charging and comes at the price of a diesel."