VW Likely to Back Electric Car Assembly at East German Plant

Volkswagen’s (VOWG_p.DE) leaders will on Friday probably approve more investment in a plant in eastern Germany to ramp up production of electric cars there, sources said, as the carmaker strives to create a mass market for zero-emission vehicles.

The world’s largest automaker plans to spend more than 20 billion euros ($23.5 billion) on electric mobility by 2030, including costs to develop battery models and upgrade factories.

Until it admitted in 2015 to cheating on U.S. diesel emissions tests, Volkswagen (VW) had been slow to embrace zero-emission cars.  Under its “roadmap E”, VW now aims to offer an electric version of each of its 300 group models by 2030.

With its nearly 9,000 workers, VW’s plant in Zwickau makes the Golf and Passat models.  The combustion-engine vehicles could be shifted to the under-utilized factories at Wolfsburg and Emden to make room for electric-car production at the site in Saxony, three sources close to VW said on Tuesday.

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