VW to spend $9 billion on electric vehicles. Audi plans 30 new EVs

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The Audi Q4 e-tron concept is presented at the Geneva Motor Show on the first press day. The 89th Geneva Motor Show starts on 7 March and lasts until 17 March.

The luxury arm of Volkswagen plans to accelerate its push into battery electric vehicles with 30 BEVs expected to reach the market by 2025, company officials announced during their annual meeting on Thursday morning.

But the move is expected to ding the brand’s bottom line. Volkswagen expects to spend about $9 billion on electrification by 2023 — much of that through Audi, which is taking a leading role in the corporate effort. Audi is developing a new battery-vehicle “architecture,” dubbed premium platform electric, or PPE, that will be shared by other brands, including Porsche.

That is one of the key reasons why Audi’s operating return on sales will run between 7 and 8.5 percent in the near-term, officials said during a meeting at brand headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany, compared to a long-term Audi goal of between 9 and 11 percent.

Audi officials said they are taking steps to trim costs, even as they hope to counter a worldwide decline in sales last year.

“The transformation plan is making a significant contribution towards safeguarding our future,” Alexander Seitz, Audi’s member of the board of management for finance, China, compliance and integrity, said in Ingolstadt. “Because only in this way is it possible for us to transfer enormous resources into future areas and generate the cash flow to finance electric mobility.”