Volkswagen: Creatively Countering Its Carbon Footprint

Sep 16, 2015 12:00 PM ET

Originally posted on forbes.com

For starters, the entire Volkswagen group has very ambitious strategies that seem to go above and beyond what a standard company might do to help the environment. The automaker plans to reduce its passenger vehicle carbon dioxide emissions by 90% by 2050. That might seem a ways out, but a 90% reduction is massive. VW plans to improve fuel efficiency during each vehicle redesign by 10-15 percent. From 2010 to 2020, the company’s greenhouse gas emissions due to production are set to be reduced around 40 percent. E-mobility — personal transportation powered by electricity instead of internal combustion — is also a critical factor in sustainability for most automakers. Fuel cell, battery electric, plug-in hybrid, and hybrid vehicles can all contribute, provided a company can achieve efficient production and recycling processes. Volkswagen Group engineers are working on electrifying 40 different models, with many of them already in markets worldwide. The automaker will also invest $10 million dollars in charging infrastructure throughout the U.S. by 2016.

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