Volkswagen may release a small EV for as little as $24,000
The car could be roughly the size of a Polo.
In the future, Volkswagen may have a pretty affordable electric vehicle offering in its lineup. According to Reuters, the automaker is working on a pure electric car around the size of a Polo under a project that the company calls “Small BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle).” The publication says Volkswagen is developing the vehicle for the mass market “in anticipation of tougher climate regulations” and that the car will cost anywhere between 20,000 and 25,000 Euros (US$24,000 to $30,000).
That price point would make it more affordable than the ID.3 and the upcoming ID.4 and would make it a direct competitor to one of Tesla’s upcoming models. During its “Battery Day” event in September, Tesla said it’s making changes that would halve the costs of building battery cells for its vehicles. That would allow it to push forward with its plans to build a $25,000 EV within the next three years. Since Reuters only saw Volkswagen’s BEV plans, and the company has yet to confirm it, we’d likely have to wait quite a bit to see it and to find out when it’ll become available.
In mid—November, Volkswagen announced that it’s putting aside a bigger portion of its overall investment budget for digital and electric vehicle technologies. It originally planned to pour only 60 billion Euros (US$72 billion) into electric and self-driving vehicle development over the next five years, but it increased that figure to 73 billion Euros (US$86 billion). Both the bigger investment and the development of an affordable electric vehicle could help the company offer 300 EV models by 2030 like it’s hoping to do so. Further, both could help it reach the point wherein 60 percent of the vehicles it sells in Europe is comprised of hybrids and EVs. That’s something the company has to achieve by 2030 to be able to adhere to the European Union’s stricter emissions targets.
