BERLIN — Volkswagen Group will pace up its shift to electrical automobiles and revamp its software program technique in a five-year funding plan introduced by administration to the supervisory board on Friday, the automaker stated in an announcement.
VW’s supervisory board mentioned the right way to rejig the automaker’s manufacturing community to speed up the transfer to cleaner driving, the assertion stated, with out elaborating.
VW Group, whose manufacturers vary from premium Audis and Porsches to mass-market VWs and Skodas, has additionally been taking a look at the right way to repair a software program technique suffering from delays and value overruns.
Full particulars of what was mentioned will likely be introduced on the firm’s annual media convention on March 14.
Reuters reported earlier on Friday that board members had been as a consequence of focus on whether or not to construct a brand new plant for the Trinity electricsedan at Friday’s assembly, a call the VW model chief Thomas Schaefer had stated in December can be made this month.
VW’s assertion didn’t say whether or not the plan, drawn up underneath former CEO Herbert Diess, would go forward or whether or not it might produce the brand new automobile at its important Wolfsburg plant, an thought executives floated on the finish of final yr.
The board was additionally as a consequence of focus on which new fashions could possibly be produced at VW’s Hanover plant in Germany after manufacturing of the VW Bus 6.1 involves an finish, and its Osnabrueck plant, which could possibly be assigned a brand new Porsche mannequin, in accordance with German enterprise paper Handelsblatt, citing unidentified sources.
Workers worry 1,000 jobs could possibly be in danger in Hanover if the plant shouldn’t be allotted a brand new mannequin, the paper stated, citing sources near the workforce.
A spokesperson for the works council denied the Handelsblatt report, saying jobs in Hanover had been assured underneath an settlement with the corporate till 2029. “There will likely be a viable resolution for Hanover,” the spokesperson stated.
The planning spherical was the primary since Porsche boss Oliver Blume succeeded Diess as VW Group CEO final autumn and postponed the assembly from its authentic deliberate date in November.
Blume has swept via the carmaker’s strategic plans since taking up to streamline its operations, a distinction from Diess, who was recognized for formidable plans however criticized by some, together with the works council, for missing clear execution.