Volkswagen is actively developing its electric vehicles business
Volkswagen Corporation plans to invest 7 billion euros in the production of electric cars in Spain. Most of the money will be used to build a plant to produce batteries for electric vehicles on the outskirts of Valencia.
It is planned that the plant in Spain will begin operation in 2026, its total capacity will be 40 GWh. In addition to this plant, the German concern will allocate funds to develop the production line for electric cars at its plants that are already operating in Spain.
According to the strategy of Volkswagen, the corporation wants to build six large plants in Europe for the production of batteries by 2030. The first of these will appear in Sweden in the current year, it will be created together with the local company Northvolt, which is engaged in the production of batteries.
The second plant will be launched in Germany in 2025, and Volkswagen is building it together with the Chinese company Gotion High-Tech.
Volkswagen continues to develop the production of electric cars. By the end of the year, the specialists plan to equip the vehicles with the new firmware of the third version. The software will make it possible to increase the capacity of 77 kWh batteries to 135 kW, while previously this indicator was 125 kW. There is also a function of economical consumption of the battery and the signal output of information about the amount of charge on the main display.
In addition, a software update will improve navigation and the quality of the voice assistant. The latter will recognize commands with 95% accuracy, including conversational phrases. The semi-autonomous pilot Travel Assist, which is equipped with Volkswagen electric cars, will be able to use a number of intelligent functions on roads with one-way traffic.
This system helps keep the car within one lane, as well as maintain distance from the cars ahead. Thus, the driver is able to react faster to changing traffic conditions. The update will allow you to transfer control of the electric car to the semi-automatic, even on stretches of road that do not require control of being within one lane.
The firmware version 3.0 will also be applied to all new models of the concern’s electric cars. Vehicles that are already in operation will receive an over-the-air update. For this purpose, the system will collect data from all Volkswagen vehicles and use this information to select the right type of steering on a particular stretch of road.
In addition, the new firmware improves the skills of the automated system to perform different types of parking. The device can autonomously terminate maneuvers that the driver has started. All parking options are stored in the system’s memory, and if necessary, the program will reproduce them.
In the future, automaker Volkswagen plans to expand the line of electric cars, now in development – several new prototypes, which have not yet been presented to the general public.