VW Says It Has To Convince Suppliers on EVs

At least to the scale the company wants to make them.

We do not speak about them very often, but suppliers are a fundamental part of the automotive industry. And also a very vulnerable one, if not the most prone to get harmed at all. If they invest too much to supply for a car that eventually does not sell, there’s nothing they can do. This is why Volkswagen is having a lot of trouble convincing battery suppliers about its EV plans, according to Reuters.

Don’t get us wrong. EVs are already a reality, but not to the scale VW wants to drive them. The company has a plan it calls “Electric for All”. It intends to sell 22 million EVs in ten years. Or 2.2 million every year until 2029, on average.

That is a whole lot of batteries. And Volkswagen does not intend to build them itself. Hence the need to convince suppliers to invest a whole lot of money in factories for EV batteries. The German carmaker sees South Korean companies SKI, LG Chem and Samsung SDI as strategic partners, as well as Northvolt, from Sweden, and CATL, from China.

What if these EVs do not prove popular enough for such volumes? What if they are too expensive for the markets in which VW plans to sell them?