Volkswagen showed an e-mobility project developed by Volkswagen Group Innovation and Volkswagen Group South Africa. A study of an electric tractor developed in and for Africa to facilitate small-scale agriculture and to increase the productivity of subsistence farmers while also improving power supply and mobility in sub-Saharan Africa.
Next, the e-tractor project will set up partnerships between Volkswagen Group South Africa and different African collaborators, universities and stakeholders. As a result of their co-ooeration they will gain knowledge on technical aspects of the sharing system and its implementation in local contexts.
The research partnership has aligned the company's interest in developing the discourse on the countryside through research and future rural mobility narratives. It will extend to China, with the Volkswagen Group Innovation Center Beijing researching perceptions of the Chinese Countryside, and to Eastern Saxony, where the company is pushing the transformation to e-mobility.