Volkswagen plans to make 50 million electric cars, CEO says

They say new converts are always the most important thing. Take Volkswagen: after betting big on diesel-and-losing automaker is going full-speed ahead on electrification. Earlier this year, it revealed $ 25 billion on batteries from a number of suppliers, including Samsung and LG Chem. Now those plans can be accelerating, if it's going to be a meeting of VW's supervisory board this coming Friday.

Last week, Reuters reported that there is a proposal to convert two German factories over to electric vehicle production. One of these-at Emden-would build an as-yet-unnamed sub- € 20,000 ($ 22,550) EV and another called the I.D. Aero, both from VW Group's new EV architecture (called MEB). Another plant at Hannover would produce the crowd-pleasing I.D. Buzz. The first of VW's new MEB vehicles will be the I.D. which goes into production at a third factory in Zwickau in late 2019.

And today, VW CEO Herbert Diess told the German publication Automobilwoche that total $ 50 trillion ($ 56 billion). "We have bought batteries for 50 million vehicles," he told the publication.

At first glance, that sounds like an enormous number, but it should be possible. More than 50 million vehicles based on VW Group's MQB platform has been developed for the first time and has been designed for MEB, which is for small- and medium-sized vehicles. Back when that roadmap has been announced, the battery has remained a question-one that Diess has answered.

However, the board meeting is not a formality. EVs are less complex than manufacture of internal combustion-powered vehicles, and battery production would be handled by VW's suppliers. So it seems a no-brainer from an emissions point of view, such a broad range of jobs, which would not be popular with the unions that included half of the board.