Volkswagen: Battery supply challenge bigger than EU ban on gasoline car sales

According to foreign media reports,Volkswagenexecutives said on June 29 that the European Union's plan to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles over the next 12 years does bring challenges to the auto industry, but the industry will actually encounter tougher times.The daunting challenge is producing enough batteries to power electric vehicles.

Earlier on June 29, EU countries reached an agreement on proposed laws to tackle climate change, including requiring new cars sold within the bloc to have zero carbon dioxide emissions from 2035, which would make internal combustion engine cars unmarketable.

The European Commission first proposed a proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 last summer, and now an agreement between EU states and the Commission makes the proposal likely to become EU law.

"It's a challenging goal, but we think it's doable," VolkswagenChief Financial Officer Arnold Antlitz said in an interview. "The biggest challenge is not to increase the number of car factories, but to increase the number of batteries. output.”

Volkswagenhas previously said it will stop selling combustion-engine vehicles in EU countries by 2035, but some other automakers, such as Toyota, which are lagging in the race to develop electric vehicles, may struggle to achieve that goal.On June 29, the Japanese automaker declined to comment.

Mainstream automakers have been racing to secure battery supplies, but getting enough battery raw materials could be a bigger problem.Failure to get enough supplies of lithium, nickel, manganese or cobalt could slow the transition to electrification and make those vehicles more expensive, threatening automakers' profit margins.

Last month, Stellantis Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said he expected a shortage of electric vehicle batteries to hit the auto industry in 2024-25.Many automakers are building new battery factories while trying to increase sales of electric vehicles.

On June 29, Tang Weishi said that the EU's decision "was not a surprise to us, neither good news nor bad news for us, but something we planned." Stellantis plans to be exclusive in Europe by 2030 Sell ​​electric cars.