Volkswagen’s electric strategy shift “risky bet” but may yield dominance of e-car market

The radical shift in strategy by Germany’s biggest carmaker Volkswagen towards electric vehicles is “a radical and risky bet” that stems from the turmoil caused by the company’s emissions fraud scandal, Edward Taylor and Jan Schwartz write for the news agency Reuters. The main culprit of the so-called dieselgate scandal, which so far has cost Volkswagen more than 27 billion euros, is set to become one of the world’s biggest e-car producers, and VW could flood the market with affordable products if its strategy succeeds, industry analysts say.
At the end of last year, Volkswagen announced that it will convert several production sites into pure e-car factories and will invest over 40 billion euros in future technologies in the next years. However, analysts warn that even more fundamental strategic changes are needed to make the company fit for a future car market dominated by digital technology.