Volkswagen launches 1st all-electric SUV in S. Korea

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- Volkswagen Korea on Thursday launched the all-electric ID.4 SUV in its first debut outside of Europe, as it sees South Korea "essential" for its e-mobility business.

Volkswagen Korea said it will gradually expand its electric vehicle lineup, as South Korea is one of the fastest-growing and pioneering EV countries.

"Future of e-mobility from my point of view is fast-growing. If we want to be sustainable in the future, the only way for mass mobility is pure electric," Dr. Silke Bagschik, in charge of E-mobility product lineup at Volkswagen AG, said at the launching ceremony.

And so the big target is to become 100 percent net carbon neutral by 2050. The company has set an intermediate milestone by 2030, and it wants to reduce the emissions on average of every vehicle by Volkswagen by 40 percent compared with 2018, he said.

"I believe EV era has just started and has still long way to go, still having also petrol and diesel engines. We are in a transition phase at least until 2030," Volkswagen Korea Executive Director Sacha Askidjian said.

The ID.4, built based on Volkswagen's EV-dedicated platform MEB, is the first SUV of its ID series.

The new model comes with an 82 kilowatt-hour high voltage battery. It can charge 80 percent of the battery in 36 minutes at a fast charger and travel up to 405 kilometers on a single charge.

It is priced at 55 million won (US$39,000) and available at a lower price with a government subsidy of 6.5 million won.

From January to August, Volkswagen Korea's sales fell 22 percent to 8,586 vehicles from 10,998 units during the same period of last year.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
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