As part of its bolder investment, VW set a goal of 80 new electric vehicles across all its brands by 2025 (previously, they aspired to put out 30 EVs). Further, the company wants to offer an electric version of each of its existing 300 models by 2030.

Other automakers have been aggressively committing to electric vehicles, with Volvo and Aston Martin both committing to abandon gas-only vehicles by the next decade. So Volkswagen has a competitive reason to keep up with the auto industry's push toward EVs -- as well as national bans on fossil fuel-powered vehicles in France, the UK and China.

But the company is also trying to move beyond its diesel emissions fiasco, which remains topical after a VW engineer got sentenced to 40 months in prison for his part in the scandal. The $15 billion settlement of the case stipulated more investment in electric vehicle infrastructure, which the company already started acting on with a $300 million commitment last April to build charging stations (and robots to plug in your car for you). VW's already started teasing its next new EV models and plans to bring the ID Buzz from concept to consumer-ready throwback minibus by 2022.