VW's new CEO: Supports predecessor's electric vehicle strategy, but internal combustion engines can also play a role in reducing emissions

On July 22nd, VW Group fired its CEO Herbert Diess, and the new CEO is Oliver Blume, CEO of VW Group Porsche.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sept. 1 that VW's new CEO Bloom, on his first day on the job, expressed support for his predecessor's electric vehicle strategy, but also said that traditional internal combustion engines could also play a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars.

Bloom said that while he supports VW's rollout of electric vehicles and may even accelerate that rollout, VW may also continue to produce vehicles with low-carbon internal combustion engines for many years to come. The advantage of synthetic fuels (e-Fuels) is that they can be transported just like conventional fuels," Bloom said in a media interview. In addition, the current infrastructure can be used."

Bloom and his development team have previously reportedly been supportive of synthetic fuels (e-Fuels), which can be used in conventional internal combustion engine vehicles, keeping them from being prematurely phased out and effectively reducing carbon emissions.

Ferdinand Dudenhoffer of the Duisburg-based Center for Automotive Research analyzed Bloom's support for an increased role for synthetic fuels in VW's overall strategy, which could lead VW to shift some of its resources away from electric vehicles and toward conventional vehicles. "As a result, the VW Group's investment in electric vehicles could be affected," Dudenhoffer said.

The VW Group had previously approved new CEO Bloom's plan to reduce the number of management board members from 12 to 10 to ensure its decisions can be implemented more quickly.