VW is really optimistic about electric vehicle sales

If there has been anything good that came out of Dieselgate, it’s Volkswagen’s commitment to battery electric vehicles. In addition to launching Electrify America, a network of EV charging stations, VW has developed an all-new modular electric architecture. The ID.3 will be the first BEV built on VW’s MEB architecture, and we’ve seen the ID Buzz microbus and ID Buggy concepts from the company as well.

VW’s newfound commitment to electrons is apparently paying off, judging by a pair of press releases from the company. Not only has it delivered 250,000 EVs since introducing the E-Up in 2013, the German carmaker says it will produce its millionth VW-badged BEV by the end of 2023. That number will rise to 1.5 million before the end of 2025.

This is noteworthy stuff, as VW originally figured it wouldn’t hit the million-BEV milestone until the end of 2025.

“2020 will be a key year for the transformation of Volkswagen. With the market launch of the ID.3 and other attractive models in the ID. family, our electric offensive will also become visible on the roads,” said Thomas Ulbrich, member of the Volkswagen brand board of management responsible for E-Mobility. “Our new overall plan for 1.5 [million] electric cars in 2025 shows that people want climate-friendly individual mobility—and we are making it affordable for millions of people.”

So far, VW has gotten 37,000 customers to lay down a deposit for an ID.3. Those aren’t Tesla numbers by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s impressive stuff for a company that was all-in on diesels just a half-decade ago. And it’s not just VWs that are moving. The all-electric Porsche Taycan is one of the best cars we’ve driven this year, and the Audi E-tron has been a modest success as well.

The first ID.3s are targeted at the European market and will roll off the assembly line in early 2020. Production in the US and China will begin in 2020.