VW to Invest €23b in Core Brand

Volkswagen will invest €22.8 billion in its main car brand over the next five years, it said on Saturday, a day after it announced a spending program aimed at bolstering its position as a maker of electric cars. Most of that sum, around €14 billion, will be spent in Germany, Volkswagen said, adding that one of the key measures included a €1 billion injection to transform the carmaker’s Zwickau plant into a pure e-mobility facility, Reuters reported. “The investment package which has now been adopted will give a decisive boost to the largest product and technology offensive in the history of the brand,” Herbert Diess, chief executive of the Volkswagen brand and a VW management board member, said. Analysts see reviving the VW brand, which has long suffered from high staff and development costs, as crucial to the group’s ability to recover from a diesel emissions scandal that has gripped the carmaker.  The investments unveiled on Saturday are part of Volkswagen’s €72 billion spending plan for the 2018-2022 period that was announced on Friday.