Volkswagen's electric vehicles are expected to need at least until 2030 to reach profitability close to that of combustion-engine cars. InsideEVs reported on May 6 that Volkswagen presented that outlook at its first-quarter earnings briefing.

Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz (아르노 안틀리츠) said a shift to the next-generation SSP electric vehicle platform is needed for EV margins to fully match those of combustion-engine cars. He said fully comparable margins will be possible on the future SSP platform.

SSP is Volkswagen's next-generation scalable systems platform. It is the successor to the MEB and PPE platforms currently used for electric vehicles. MEB is used for Volkswagen's ID series, and PPE is applied to vehicles including the Audi A6 and Q6 e-tron, and electric models of the Porsche Macan and Cayenne.

Volkswagen set a goal of cutting production costs by up to 20 percent versus MEB through SSP. SSP's launch, however, has been pushed back to 2030 from the original plan for this year.

Work to improve profitability is also under way on existing platforms. Antlitz said vehicles based on the upgraded MEB Plus use cheaper lithium iron phosphate batteries. He also said the profitability of the ID.2 Cross is at 70 to 80 percent of comparable combustion-engine models.

Volkswagen sees improved EV profitability helping it meet Europe's carbon dioxide regulation targets without undermining profits. It forecast the group's overall operating profit margin at 4 to 5.5 percent in 2026. That is higher than 2.8 percent in 2025.

Chief Executive Oliver Blume (올리버 블루메) set a target of lifting the group's overall operating profit margin to 8 to 10 percent by 2030. However, North America sales fell 10 percent in 2025 and China sales fell 8 percent.