Volkswagen is readying its production facilities to make 50 million electric cars, the automaker’s CEO Herbert Diess told Automotive News.
Diess told the publication that the company has a German plant that will produce nothing but electric cars and has already sourced the batteries and “booked” production for 50 million cars. He did not provide a timeline, except to say that Volkswagen is investing heavily because the electric vehicle market will pick up in the next few years.
A Volkswagen spokesman told Autoblog that the numbers referred to a long-term goal for their MEB electric cars.
The plan is an ambitious one, but one that goes along with the company’s goals to dive into the electric vehicle market.
Earlier this year, Volkswagen said it will get its electric vehicles into production by the end of this year and will have 27 new MEB models in production by 2022.
In 2017, the car company sold 10.7 million vehicles, keeping the title of the world’s biggest carmaker.
While Tesla tops the electric car market, Volkswagen had already announced plans to make a more affordable entry-level electric vehicle, which it said will cost less than $22,700.
The announcement comes as Volkswagen continues to move past the 2015 Dieselgate emission scandal and amid the United Kingdom banning new diesel vehicles altogether.
Other German carmakers have also entered the luxury electric car market. In September, Audi started production on its e-tron and Mercedes-Benz unveiled its EQC model.