--- description: Find out why Volkswagen was selected for the inaugural list title: TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2021: Volkswagen image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef3c1ca292ad7d7b/698a190c22fb85a0d2e2c205/volkswagen-time100-companies-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 27, 2021 # Volkswagen Racing to lead EVs by [Alison Van Houten](/author/alison-van-houten/) ## Alison Van Houten Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Herbert Diess, Volkswagen Group CEO, stands beside the assembly line for the production of the ID.3 electric car. Herbert Diess, Volkswagen Group CEO, stands beside the assembly line for the production of the ID.3 electric car.Jens Büttner—picture alliance/Getty Images As carmakers from GM to Ford vie to match Tesla’s electric-vehicle sales, Volkswagen Group, the world’s largest auto manufacturer by revenue (it also makes Audi, Porsche and others), aims to overtake them all by 2025\. With the specter of the 2015 emissions scandal still looming, the German corporation has earmarked $54 billion for electric projects over the next five years, with plans to build six battery factories and 18,000 charging stations throughout Europe. In 2020, it sold 231,600 electric vehicles—more than triple the number it moved the previous year. That was still less than half the EVs Tesla sold last year, but VW thinks it can sell 1 million in 2021. Volkswagen Is One of the 2021 TIME100 Most Influential Companies ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953626/volkswagen/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953626/volkswagen/"},"headline":"Volkswagen","datePublished":"2021-04-27T00:49:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T05:08:44.028Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953626/volkswagen/","keywords":["Lists","franchise","TIME100 Companies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef3c1ca292ad7d7b/698a190c22fb85a0d2e2c205/volkswagen-time100-companies-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alison Van Houten","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alison-van-houten/"}],"creator":"Alison Van Houten","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef3c1ca292ad7d7b/698a190c22fb85a0d2e2c205/volkswagen-time100-companies-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953626/volkswagen/","name":"Volkswagen"}}]}] ```