Volkswagen vows to build 22 million electric vehicles over next decade

Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen AG, addresses the media during the annual press conference of the car manufacturer Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, Germany, Tuesday, March 12, 2019. (Christophe Gateau/dpa via AP)
Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen AG, addresses the media during the annual press conference of the car manufacturer Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, Germany, Tuesday, March 12, 2019. (Christophe Gateau/dpa via AP)

Volkswagen plans to ramp up production of electric vehicles over the next 10 years to 22 million, said the company that has announced a new battery-powered assembly plant in Chattanooga.

Previously, the company said it would aim for 15 million. That was ambitious in itself given that it made fewer than 50,000 battery-only vehicles last year.

photo Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen AG, addresses the media during the annual press conference of the car manufacturer Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, Germany, Tuesday, March 12, 2019. (Christophe Gateau/dpa via AP)
photo From right, Hamilton County students Javier Favors, Jordan Kirby, Aaron Bun, Miles Matthews and Marko Burdeiniy listen as Ilker Subasi, assistant manager of technical training at Volkswagen Chattanooga, discusses the program and tools that will be needed to produce electric vehicles at Volkswagen. The modular electric platform shown is used for training purposes.

The company is pivoting to electric vehicles as it seeks to comply with new limits on carbon dioxide emissions in Europe, and a push by China for more low-emission vehicles.

In the United States, Volkswagen announced plans in January for an $800 million facility adjacent to its Chattanooga assembly plant to begin producing electric vehicles by 2022. A new battery-powered SUV is slated to be the first vehicle produced in the new plant that will employ 1,000 more employees in Chattanooga.

VW already employs about 3,800 people at the existing Enterprise South industrial park factory that currently makes the Passat sedan and Atlas SUV.

The company also disclosed that operating profit at its core Volkswagen brand, one of 12, fell to 3.2 billion euros ($3.6 billion) from 3.3 billion last year as the company faced bottlenecks certifying vehicles under new emissions tests.

The company said operating results for the group in 2018 rose 0.4 percent to 17.1 billion euros on sales that rose 2.7 percent to 235.8 billion euros. Net profit for the year rose 6 percent to 12.2 billion euros.

CEO Herbert Diess said at the company's annual news conference that the company met its profit goal with an operating margin of 7.3 percent.

photo Frank Witter, CFO of the Volkswagen AG, addresses the media during the annual press conference of the car manufacturer Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, Germany, Tuesday, March 12, 2019. (Christophe Gateau/dpa via AP)

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