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NEWS
Volkswagen reasserts its global top-dog ambitions
Enhanced strategy calls for VW's fleet-wide fuel consumption to drop below 4L/100km by 2020Volkswagen is using the Geneva show to deliver a one-two industry punch in its bid to become the world’s number one car maker by 2018. First came the announcement that the hyper-efficient XL1 concept (pictured) on display at the show stands ready for production. Now comes a declaration that VW is raising its own sustainability ambitions with plans to push its fleet average emissions below 95g/km by 2020.
In a cover-all statement released for the show, Volkswagen Group chairman Martin Winterkorn described the XL1 as “a technological spearhead”. The super lightweight two-seat diesel hybrid’s official figures – 0.83L/100km, 21g/km CO2 – make it about four times as efficient as a Toyota Prius. Its aim, Dr Winterkorn said, is to set “new long-term standards in the automotive industry. The technologies used in the XL1 [will] find their way into our series vehicles.”
Dr Winterkorn also told media that the sustainability restructure announced a year ago as part of the Group’s Strategy 2018 roadmap is “proceeding [on] schedule”. Strategy 2018 documents the company’s goal of becoming the world’s number one auto manufacturer by 2018, commercially and environmentally.
The announcement the company was raising its own sustainability bar by “committing to reducing the CO2 output of the European new car fleet to 95g/km by 2020” is an aggressive tilt at industry leadership on sustainability.
To achieve such a benchmark amounts to a fuel consumption average of less than 4L/100km across the group’s entire line-up. The first step, Dr Winterkorn said, is to bring its cross-fleet CO2 emissions average below 120g/km by 2015 – 12 grams below legal requirements.
Some 245 model variants on the company’s books already come in below the 120g threshold – an improvement of about 60 per cent on just two years ago. Thirty-six of these sit below 100 grams – nearly 40 per cent better than in 2011.
Dr Winterkorn also said that around 70 per cent of the €50.2 billion ($AUD64 billion) investment covering the period to 2015 will be recouped in that time by efficiency hikes in both production methods and product. This is well in keeping with the company’s plans to make its 100 production plants worldwide “25 per cent more environmentally compatible” by 2018.
Across the key indicators it has identified for energy and water use, waste management as well as CO2 and solvent outputs, the Group is claiming environmental savings of 10 per cent per vehicle produced over the past two years.
“We are orienting Volkswagen towards maximum energy and resource efficiency. We are well on our way to making our Group the world’s leading automaker in environmental terms,” Dr Winterkorn said.
Pushing for the rest of the industry to match or exceed its efforts, the company is using its successes as leverage to lobby for the introduction of manufacturer incentive schemes to match those already operating in the US and China. “Now is the time to initiate innovations so that efficient technologies and alternative powertrains can be widely used faster,” Dr Winterkorn said. “I am convinced this is in the best interests of customers, the environment and Europe as an industrial location.”
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Written byJeremy Bass
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