Electric vehicles are getting near the tipping point – the point where they gain broad acceptance with buyers. That's according to VW's brand strategy boss, says a new report.
"We strongly believe that the tipping point is near, and that tipping point will be price equity," VW senior VP Reinhard Fischer told Automotive News. "Once you overcome the fear of something new, the EV is the better choice for you,"
Volkswagen's recent focus groups, which the company held ahead of its plan to launch a bevvy of BEVs over the next few years, showed that VW still had a few things to move past with consumers. "There is still a fear about driving electric cars through water," Fischer said. "For 50 years, we've educated people that electricity and water don't mix."
Fischer also said that there's a new problem replacing range anxiety: "Range anxiety has now been replaced by charging anxiety." But history shows that this problem will pass. "A hundred years ago, gasoline was sold at pharmacies. Today, we have 122,000 gas stations in the United States. It's transformed from a bottleneck to a commodity," Fischer said. "Electric charging is going to be exactly the same."
The exec told Automotive News he felt that VW's US $50B push to add 70 fully electric models throughout the Volkswagen Group by 2028 will help add scale to EVs and shrink costs. It's an estimated 22 million vehicles by that year. And it's that price parity that will make EVs the easy choice.
