It is reported that German car giant Volkswagen (Volkswagen) plans to stop producing gasoline and diesel engines for European models as early as 2033 in order to accelerate the development of electric vehicles.
Klaus Zellmer, a member of the company's board of directors responsible for sales and marketing, said in an interview with the media, "We will leave the European internal combustion engine car market between 2033 and 2035." Similar measures will be "a little later in the United States and China", while in South America and Africa, this will take longer because of the lack of political framework and infrastructure.
Zellmer said the carmaker's entire product line will be carbon-neutral by 2050 at the latest, and hopes that electric vehicles will account for 70 per cent of the company's total sales in Europe by 2030. In March, Volkswagen said it planned not to develop any new internal combustion engines.
Volkswagen's competitors are understood to have announced similar carbon-neutral targets: Ford said earlier this year that it would sell electric cars only in Europe by 2030 and plans to spend $1 billion to transform its plant in Cologne, Germany, into an electric car production line.
Jaguar Land Rover aims for 2036, while GM says it will abandon internal combustion engines by 2035. Audi said last week that it would launch only pure electric cars from 2026 and stop producing gasoline and diesel cars by 2033.
In fact, in the wake of the diesel scandal, Volkswagen is investing a lot of resources in developing electric cars to catch up with its competitors. In November, the company said 73 billion euros (63 billion pounds, nearly half of its investment budget for the next five years) would be invested in digital technologies such as electric and hybrid vehicles, as well as self-driving systems.
On the other hand, some European countries have their own goals for "banning conventional gasoline-powered cars": Norway's goal is 2025, France's target is 2040, and Britain's goal is 2050. In the United States, California plans to ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035, and several other states will adopt the California model.
