Record earnings and 20 billion euros in battery orders at VW

German car manufacturer Volkswagen said it plans to buy battery cells and related technology worth around 20 billion euros for electric-vehicle projects in Europe and China, news agency Reuters reports. A supplier decision for North America will be taken shortly, the company said in a press release. Europe’s largest automaker will expand production of electric cars to 16 factories worldwide by the end of 2022, the carmaker said on Tuesday, presenting its 2017 results. The Volkswagen group nearly doubled its 2017 operating profit even while undergoing a costly strategic shift to electric and self-driving cars, and grappling with the emissions scandal, Reuters says. In 2017, the company had “record earnings despite billions in cash outflows from the diesel crisis,” VW said in its press release.
VW's 2017 results show that the company has enough money to pay for diesel car hardware retrofits, said Ingrid Remmers, transport spokesperson of the Left Party's parliamentary group in the Bundestag in a press release.

Read the Reuters articles in English here and here, and the VW press release in English here, and the Left Party's release here.

For background, read the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.