Volkswagen will invest €22.8 billion (SR100.85 billion) in its main car brand over the next five years, it said on Saturday, a day after it announced a spending program aimed at bolstering its position as a maker of electric cars.
Most of that sum, around €14 billion, will be spent in Germany, Volkswagen said, adding that one of the key measures included a €1 billion injection to transform the carmaker’s Zwickau plant into a pure e-mobility facility.
“The investment package which has now been adopted will give a decisive boost to the largest product and technology offensive in the history of the brand,” Herbert Diess, Chief Executive of the Volkswagen brand and a VW management board member, said.
Analysts see reviving the VW brand, which has long suffered from high staff and development costs, as crucial to the group’s ability to recover from a diesel emissions scandal that has gripped the carmaker.
The investments unveiled on Saturday are part of Volkswagen’s €72 billion spending plan for the 2018-2022 period that was announced on Friday.