German automaker Volkswagen today announced it will discontinue its internal combustion engines by 2026. Instead, it will focus on electric automobiles.
Another gas motor bites the dust. Volkswagen will go all electric after 2026, according to the company’s strategy chief.
“In the year 2026 will be the last product start on a combustion engine platform,” Michael Jost told the Handelsblatt automotive summit conference at Volkswagen’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, NBC News reported.
The move comes in the wake a scandal in which the company was found cheating emissions standards in its diesel vehicles in 2015. The damaging scandal cost the company more than 27 billion euros (more than $31 billion) in penalties and fines.
Euro Brands Moving Electric
Volkswagen is not the first brand to make the move toward electric vehicles. In November, Volvo claimed that every car introduced from 2019 onward will be, at least in part, electrified.
But the Volkswagen statement takes that a step further. While details remain shrouded, Jost’s statement alludes to the elimination of combustion altogether.
That would mean no hybrid engines, currently a core segment of the automotive industry.
Reuters confirmed through a company spokesman that Jost’s remarks meant that VW will focus on electric cars instead. While VW claimed just 1.7 percent of the U.S. market share in 2017, it remains the best-selling passenger brand in Europe and China.
