VW and Porsche Have Aggressive EV Plans

The future of the auto industry keeps looking more and more electric. The Volkswagen Group is huge, and two key brands are looking to push aggressive EV plans as they project more consumers will ditch gasoline.

First up is Volkswagen, which already has set aside an entire factory for EV production in Europe, and is building a charging infrastructure in North America. Now, CNET says the automaker will set up an EV-only factory in North America by 2022.

Most likely the new facility will be in Chattanooga, Tenn., where VW already churns out plenty of vehicles. Still, Mexico is a possibility. This is part of a plan to set up 14 other all-electric factories around the globe, bringing the total to 16 by 2022. Most of those will be in China. That will require VW to ante up about $40 billion.

Then there’s Porsche. It’s about to launch the Taycan, the brand’s first all-electric consumer vehicle, yet it already is setting a lofty goal. Per an article in German publication Manager Magazin, Porsche aims to make the Cayenne, Macan, Boxster, Panamera — and pretty much everything but the 911 — all-electric by 2025. The switch will start in 2022.

That’s a huge commitment, but Porsche brass apparently believes that trying to continue developing internal combustion engine technologies and EVs will be too expensive. Of course, Porsche isn’t confirming this report, so right now we’ll have to take it as speculative journalism.