MUNICH — Volkswagen plans to crack an trade barrier and provide used-vehicle leases on its ID household of electrical autos, together with these in North America, as a technique to maintain management over their beneficial batteries, VW executives advised Automotive Information.

Talking on Monday with journalists right here on the Munich auto present, Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess mentioned the secondary leases would enable VW to recycle the dear battery packs into new makes use of, together with house energy facilities and quick chargers.

“In Europe, we are attempting to get a second lease and even a 3rd lease, and maintain the automobile in our arms,” Diess advised a gaggle of American automotive journalists, including later that the identical plan could be rolled out in North America. “Battery life, we expect at this time is about 1,000 charging cycles and round 350,000 kilometers [about 215,000 miles], one thing like that. So, the battery would most likely reside longer than the automobile, and we need to pay money for the battery. We do not need to give the battery away.”

Diess mentioned the battery’s worth survives at the same time as the worth of the automobile surrounding it depreciates over time, and he mentioned that worth might assist maintain residual values excessive, making secondary leases extra reasonably priced.

“There already is a sign that residuals for electrical automobiles is perhaps larger than for [internal combustion] automobiles as a result of, even when the automobile is completely nugatory, nonetheless there’s a battery,” that will nonetheless have 70 or 80 p.c of its authentic power storage capability, Diess mentioned.

Because it started arriving within the U.S. in March, about 80 p.c of the 6,230 VW ID4s the model has offered within the U.S. have been leased, mentioned Scott Keogh, CEO of VW Group of America.

“We may have the second lease product; we have preplanned it already,” Keogh mentioned, including that the preset residual values would maintain EVs in prospects’ arms for as much as eight years, at which period they might be returned, their batteries stripped out, and the car recycled again into uncooked supplies.

“The duty for our group is to actually attempt to maintain maintain of the batteries, and possibly get right into a second or third lease cycle for the automobile after which reuse the batteries,” Diess defined. “Within the areas, it needs to be labored out, it needs to be agreed with the sellers, however we wish to maintain each one of many batteries perpetually.”

In different feedback Monday:

* VW model CEO Ralf Brandstaetter revealed that the U.S. is anticipated to ultimately obtain a 3rd EV mannequin, a fastback-inspired sedan referred to as the ID Aero. The automobile can be constructed on the automaker’s modular electrical platform, referred to as MEB, and may have higher vary than the ID4 compact crossover and the ID Buzz microbus, anticipated to reach within the U.S. late subsequent yr.

* Keogh and Brandstaetter mentioned that the U.S. market would additionally ultimately see an Atlas-sized three-row EV crossover, although its timing and actual dimension stay beneath dialogue.

* Keogh mentioned that in 2020, VW had recorded its first annual revenue in North America in almost a decade, and its most worthwhile yr in a long time. He didn’t disclose the scale of the revenue within the area, however mentioned it was a “$700 million turnaround” from its efficiency in 2019, when it misplaced cash within the area. He credited robust gross sales of the high-profit Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport crossovers as driving the profitability.