Volkswagen's electrification efforts in North America will receive an additional $7.1 billion investment over the next five years, the company announced on Monday.
VW intends to spend that money on "[boosting] its product portfolio, regional R&D and manufacturing capabilities," per a release, in hopes that doing so will help drive 55 percent of its US sales to be EVs by 2030. The company intends to ramp down its internal combustion production capacity over the same time frame, transitioning American assembly plants to produce the ID.4 in 2022, the ID.Buzz in 2024, and a yet-to-be-released SUV starting in 2026.
The company estimates that 90 percent of the vehicles it sells in North America are already assembled in North America. Its production facilities in Chattanooga, TN have already begun the electrification process with its factories at Pueblo and Silao, Mexico coming online by the middle of the decade.
VW is also betting big on batteries, having already invested more than $2.7 billion in North American supplier partnerships ahead of the ID'4's launch. The company also plans to officially open its Battery Engineering Lab (BEL) in Chattanooga this May and is considering constructing a battery production plant stateside as well though that's still in its most initial planning stages.
These investments are already paying dividends to drivers. During a press event Monday morning, Scott Keogh, President and CEO, Volkswagen Group of America noted that VW intends to bring OTA updates and new software features like plug-and-charge, which automates the transaction portion of recharging on a public station allowing drivers to simply plug in without having to swipe a debit card or fiddle with NFC readers, later this year.