Volkswagen Group outlined plans to offer as many as 40 electric or hybrid vehicles in a bet that customers will have enough confidence to shift to low-emission models.
The automaker will produce 14 vehicles with alternative drivetrains by next year, it said in a statement. The company will widen the lineup should demand increase, CEO Martin Winterkorn said on Monday at a Frankfurt auto show event to introduce the e-Up electric car and and a battery-powered version of the Golf hatchback.
"The electric car cannot be a compromise on wheels," Winterkorn said. "It must convince customers in every respect." The plug-in hybrid has the "greatest market potential," the CEO added.
VW is expanding in a niche that has yet to meet mass-market competitors' targets. Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said in an interview in early September that the carmaker and partner Nissan Motor Co. will miss a goal of selling a combined 1.5 million electric cars by 2016.
German buyers registered 435 electric autos out of a market of 214,044 new cars in August, according to the Federal Motor Vehicle Office.
The e-Up, which goes on sale in October for 26,900 euros ($35,700) in Germany, is "deliberately positioned" against the battery-powered i3 city car that BMW is bringing out, Rudolf Krebs, head of electric-powertrain technology at VW, said on Sept. 4.
BMW i3's pricing
The BMW i3 is priced at 34,950 euros and will enter showrooms in Germany in November. With the i3, "we are setting new technological standards for the industry," BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer said at a press conference here on Monday. BMW's i8 hybrid electric-gasoline sports car is also making its debut at the event. The model will be priced starting at $135,925, including destination and handling, when it goes on sale in the U.S. in early 2014, the automaker said on Tuesday in a statement.
Other alternative-drive vehicles being displayed at the show include a plug-in hybrid version of BMW's X5 SUV, an all-electric Mercedes-Benz B-class compact from Daimler that will use a drivetrain supplied by Tesla Motors Inc., and a hybrid coupe prototype from Volvo Car Group.
The electric B-class version will go on sale in the U.S. next year, while the X5 hybrid will enter showrooms in 2015.
