Volkswagen recently overtook General Motors as the number one automaker by volume in China and has plans to expand in the world’s largest automotive market even further. The automaker is behind the competition in offering electric vehicles in the country, and as a result has announced an aggressive strategy to launch more than 20 different battery-driven cars in China over the next few years.
“In the near future, Volkswagen will be offering Chinese drivers over 20 NEVs, from small cars to large-sized SUVs, from plug-in hybrids to pure electric cars,” Jochem Heizmann, head of Volkswagen Group China, told Reuters in Shanghai.
Green vehicles will be important for China as pollution remains a persistent problem in the country. China recently introduced incentives on environmentally-friendly cars and put in place stricter emissions standards in an attempt to promote the use of electric cars. Beijing also set in place a target of putting 5 million green cars on Chinese roads by 2020, a potential market all auto manufactures will be looking to tap into.
VW is behind BMW, Tesla and Nissan in selling pure-electric vehicles in China. It committed to introducing 15 new EVs in the country by 2018 in April, many of which would be locally produced, but only recently expressed the desire to introduce an additional five not far down the road.
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