VW Group chief says infrastructure, not consumer demand limits EV adoption

During the Financial Times’ Future of the Car summit, the CEO of VW Group admitted that it is way too early for the entire industry to transition from fossil fuels to electric power only. Herbert Diess explained to the audience that despite so many parties being involved in the shift to EVs - manufacturers, governments, climate organizations, energy suppliers and customers - the switch won’t happen quickly.

It is not lack of demand from customers or lack of willingness from manufacturers or other parties but simply lack of infrastructure to support the electric cars that is slowing the progress down.

The industry needs to make sure that all the electric vehicles that are be manufactured, can be supported, charging stations are just a small part of the network. Electricity suppliers need to ensure the infrastructure can support the increased demand for electricity and that it can support higher voltages required for charging.

New factories need to be built, some of the existing ones can be adapted too. Battery factories need to be built as well, there are not enough batteries manufactured to support the demand from customers. Then there is an issue of supply chains, the ongoing delays that are troubling the entire industry won’t be resolved overnight. Materials required for battery manufacturing is another area that needs immediate improvements.

There is a lot of investment happening right now, probably the largest expenditure the automotive industry has seen ever. VW Group is just one participant in this race although it has ambitious plans of becoming a global leader in EV sales by 2025.

That is a huge goal and if there was no competition VW would have an easy run. But Diess admitted that he did not expect competitors to be this quick, especially Tesla. And Tesla is just about to switch the gear up on the production levels. Whatever the outcome of this race - we will for sure live in a completely different world in just a few years.

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