BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th July, 2022) Germany will produce 15 million electric vehicles by 2030, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday, stressing the importance of national battery production for these vehicles.
Scholz took part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Volkswagen battery plant in the German city of Salzgitter.
"We want 15 million electric vehicles on German roads by 2030. We want added value and jobs to stay here in Germany and Europe. We want to manage climate change and at the same time remain an industrial country. So it is obvious that we need our own production of battery cells here in Europe, here in Germany and here in Salzgitter," Scholz said.
Scholz noted that most German companies believed that batteries for electric vehicles could be "purchased in Asia at any time as needed." However, since the COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, it became clear that reliance on global supply chains in some strategic areas means great risk, he added.
