With opposition to diesel gathering momentum, automobile makers in Germany, one of the biggest consumers of the fuel in Europe, are preparing to head out to Electric Avenue.

That was the loud and clear message at the ongoing 67th edition of the Frankfurt Motor Show: “Electric is the future.” And, that autonomous cars driven by artificial intelligence are closer than ever before. The Volkswagen group, Daimler Group and BMW Group have committed investments in excess of 50 billions euros to develop electric cars (EVs). Volkswagen, the world’s largest car maker, has declared its intent of being the largest EV maker by 2025, aiming to overtake rival Renault-Nissan, which already has a head start.

“The Volkswagen Group is launching its largest electrification initiative in the automorive industry – first, we are going to fine tune and step up our production”, Matthias Muller, global CEO of the group, told the media. “The group is going to electrify its entire model line-up, which means that by 2030, there will be at least one electrified variant for over 300 group models across all rands in all markets.” The company, with brands including Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Lamborghini and Porsche, is committed over 20 billion euros for what it calls Roadmap E.

Given the development cycles in the industry, Muller said 2030 is like “day after tomorrow” and the group is accelerating its EV strategy for the future and also taking on the responsibility of battery making. “Transformation of our industry is unstoppable and we are going to lead this.”, Muller proclaimed.

Volkswagen’s Stuttgart-based rival in the premium segment, Mercedes Benz, plans to invest 10 billion euros in electrification. The makers of the Smart Car said its mid-term vision is to move towards zero emissions and by 2022, Mercedes Benz would have a portfolio ranging from mild hybrids, strong hybrids and fully electric vehicles.

“We are planning to have over 50 electrified model offerings. All these examples show that we are doing our share and we already started years ago,” Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche asserted.

However, he said while the vision is zero carbon  emissions, there is a bridge towards complete electrification, which means there is still a critical role for diesel. “We need diesel if we are to achieve climate targets through less carbon dioxide emissions caused by world traffic. That’s why Daimler has further invested 3 billion euros in development od diesel engines,” Zetsche said.

The BMW Group plans to have 25 electric models with 12 exclusive models by 2025 and Jaguar Land Rover plans to electrify its entire range by 2020. German auto comonent maker Bosch estimates about 25% of the world’s cars will be electrified by 2030 while a vast chunk of vehicles will still run on conventional internal combustion engines.

Experts said the EV drive is the need of the hour also because car makers in Europe have to meet stringent corporate average fuel economy norms by 2021.

Coutesy: Ketan Thakker, The Economic Times