Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn has spelled out the company's plans for alternative-power vehicles - and they are ambitious, given that VW lags behind Japan, Inc, in the hybrid game.
VW, he says, will eventually offer a hybrid option for every model in its range, anywhere in the world - which would include regional models such as the Polo Vivo in South Africa.
Winterkorn said he didn't think battery technololgy was ready to go mainstream yet - Nissan's leaf and the Tesla notwithstanding - and that plug-in hybrid power would be the only viable option for at least the next decade.
He added that extended-range vehicles such as the Chevrolet Volt made a lot of sense and that Audi technicians had already built an electric TT with a single-cylinder combustion engine to boost its batteries.
Winterkorn was optimistic about the future of the battery car though, noting that lithium-sulfur batteries, already under development, had three times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries and, more importantly, that lithium-air batteries - expected to come on stream in about 2025 - could have 4-5 times the endurance of today's batteries, enabling a pure electric car to travel as far as 800km on a charge.
Meanwhile, he said, the company would continue to develop electric vehicles using current technology, with plans to launch two battery cars in China, in addition to launching new brands in the world's biggest auto market.
He said: "We have agreed with both our joint ventures, FAW and Shanghai Volkswagen, to develop a new brand."
He foresaw sales rising significantly above 2.2 million vehicles in China in 2011, equivalent to a 16 percent rise on 2010. In the first five months of 2011, he said, the group sold 714 000 vehicles in China, 15.3 percent more than during the same period in 2010.
"We want to maintain our market share of 20 percent," he said: adding that China was forecast to have as many as 20 million vehicles by 2012. = Reuters