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The comment came after EU countries clinched deals on proposed
laws to combat climate change early on Wednesday, including one
requiring new cars sold in the EU to emit zero CO2 from 2035.
That would make it impossible to sell internal-combustion engine
cars.
The European Commission had first proposed the package last
summer, aimed at slashing planet-warming emissions this decade,
but the deal overnight makes it likely that the proposal will
become EU law.
"It's a challenging goal. We think it's doable," VW Chief
Financial Officer Arno Antlitz told Reuters in an interview at
Reuters Automotive Europe conference on Wednesday.
"The most challenging topic is not ramping up the car plants.
The most challenging topic will be ramping up the battery supply
chain."
VW has said it will stop selling combustion engine cars in the
region by the target, but some carmakers further behind in the
race to develop EVs such as Toyota may struggle to meet the
target. The Japanese carmaker declined to comment on Wednesday.
Major carmakers have been racing to secure battery cell
supplies, but finding enough battery raw materials may be a
bigger problem.
Failure to obtain adequate supplies of lithium, nickel,
manganese or cobalt could slow the shift to electric vehicles (EVs),
make those vehicles more expensive and threaten carmakers'
profit margins.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said last month that he expects a
shortage of EV batteries will hit the auto industry in 2024-2025
as manufacturers try to ramp up electric vehicle sales while
still building new battery factories.
The agreement in Luxembourg came after more than 16 hours of
negotiations, with Italy, Slovakia and other states wanting the
phase-out delayed to 2040.
Countries eventually backed a compromise which kept the 2035
target and asked Brussels to assess in 2026 whether hybrid
vehicles could comply with the goal.
The 2035 proposal is designed so that in theory, any type of car
technology such as hybrids or cars running on sustainable fuels
could comply with it, as long as it means the car has no carbon
dioxide emissions.
The Commission's 2026 review would assess what technological
advances have been made in hybrid cars to see if they can comply
with the 2035 goal.
(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach, Jan Schwartz and Joe White in
Munich; additional reporting by Nick Carey in London, Kate
Abnett in Brussels and Satoshi Sugiyama in Tokyo; Writing by
Josephine Mason in London; editing by David Evans)
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