Volkswagen plans to double its sales of fully electric vehicles this year. They also forecast to overtake market leader Tesla by 2025. The German automaker aims for EVs to be 6-to-8% of sales this in 2021. That would be up from just 3% in 2020, according to a presentation by CEO Herbert Diess recently published on VW’s website.

Volkswagen sold more than 9.3 million vehicles worldwide last year. If deliveries are flat in 2021 and 8% of sales are EVs, they will sell roughly 745,000 EVs this year. Tesla delivered almost 500,000 cars last year and has forecast more than 50% growth in 2021. That implies it will sell 750,000 vehicles (or more) in 2021. As you can see, that would put VW and Tesla neck-and-neck for EV sales supremacy.

The Future of Volkswagen EVs

New EV models like the Volkswagen ID.4, Audi Q4 e-tron, and Skoda Enyaq are expected to help the German company build on the momentum of current electric models. They already boast the ID.3, Audi e-tron, and Porsche Taycan.

Volkswagen will further expand its electric lineup next year with an iteration of the hippie-era microbus, dubbed the ID. Buzz. There’s also a battery-powered version of Porsche’s best-selling Macan and a new Audi SUV. Volkswagen is targeting EVs to be at least 20% of global sales by 2025. They project EVs to be more than 30% by 2030.

To date, efforts by Volkswagen (and other established carmakers) to boost EV output have been hampered by technical problems and battery supply constraints. However, they are increasingly setting aggressive goals as Tesla steals more market share. Recently, General Motors announced that they will sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2035.

The VW ID.4 heralds the global rollout of the group’s EVs. The model will be made in Europe, China, and North America. Shares of VW and other traditional automakers have hovered at depressed levels over the past year, as investors have bid up the valuations of pure EV makers like Tesla and China’s Nio.

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Devon is a writer, editor, and veteran of the online publishing world. He has a particular love for classic muscle cars.