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Volkswagen claims that it will be impossible to abandon combustion cars on the date estimated by the European Union, and that in some markets, such as Brazil, the combustion engine emits much less than electric ones, with the use of ethanol
Volkswagen, the manufacturer of combustion and electric cars, is trying to rebuild itself by investing in the electrification market. The ID line debuted a new modular platform focused on electric cars and several plug-in hybrids are being produced. Despite investing heavily in battery-electric cars, Volkswagen CEO Hebert Diess said in an exclusive interview with The Verge that it will be impossible to retire the combustion engine in the way that the European Union plans.
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The CEO reports that the main component of an electric model is its batteries, which are currently large, heavy and expensive. Herbert Diess claims that, to have electric vehicles representing half of the group's sales by 2030, as the EU requires, it would take about six battery giga-factories up and running by 2028.
It will be necessary to buy all the machines, build the factories, find the locations, train the professionals, guarantee the supply and quality of the raw materials. According to the executive, it is a huge challenge, and he also recalls that this would only be to serve Europe, a continent where Volkswagen represents around 20% of the market. Therefore, abandoning combustion cars and replacing them with electric cars is basically impossible.
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According to the executive, there is also another impasse for the end of the combustion engine and the beginning of the electric ones. “Electric cars only make complete sense if the electrical energy that recharges them comes from clean sources. As long as a country has a polluting energy matrix, it makes no sense to sell electric models there,” he said.
Volkswagen is also present in markets that support combustion cars
The executive recalled in the interview that the group does not operate only in regions that encourage electric models such as the US and Europe. The manufacturer is among the three largest in Latin America and the second largest in Brazil, where the combustion engine should take time to retire.
According to Diess, ethanol from Brazil is virtually emission-free. Therefore, it still does not make sense to leave aside the combustion engine in the country. In the last year, the Group's investments in the country were announced for the creation of hybrids with a flex-fuel engine and with an ethanol fuel cell.
Understand what Dieselgate was
Dieselgate was the name given by the international press to the scandal of falsification of CO2 emissions tests involving several automakers, Volkswagen being one of them, first in the US, but without taking long for the authorities to find other countries, including Brazil.
On November 12, 2015, Volkswagen do Brasil is notified of the payment to Ibama of R$ 50 million. This was the first punishment in relation to the Dieselgate case that the automaker received in national territory.
The Dieselgate case also involves the FCA Group in France. Prosecutors have opened an investigation into whether the group also cheated diesel emissions tests on its combustion cars.
