As part of their settlement for the Dieselgate scandal, Volkswagen has announced their ‘Electrify American’ initiative which sees (one of) the largest auto maker(s) spend their $2 billion in fines on themselves.
Having spoiled diesel engines for everyone, VW is now focusing their sights on ruining Tesla’s dominance in the EV market. Incidentally, this isn’t in building a lower-priced alternative (see the Chevy Bolt) but by providing drivers places to actually charge their vehicles once out and about. $300 million will go directly into 450 charging stations throughout eleven major cities, offering both 150KW and 320KW chargers that should take 15-20 minutes a charge.
This is part of a larger, ten-year expenditure in zero vehicle emissions infrastructure (so, solar, then?) and education that sees $800 million going to the state of California, the largest market for electric vehicles, and another $1.2 billion being spread across the rest of the United States.
Construction is set to start by the second half of this year with 2019 the expected finish date.
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