Volkswagen to invest $27 billion in core brand until 2022

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen will invest 22.8 billion euros ($26.9 billion) in its main car brand over the next five years, it said on Saturday, a day after it announced a spending programme aimed at bolstering its position as a maker of electric cars.

Most of that sum, around 14 billion euros, will be spent in Germany, Volkswagen said, adding that one of the key measures included a 1 billion euro injection to transform the carmaker's Zwickau plant into a pure e-mobility facility.

"The investment package which has now been adopted will give a decisive boost to the largest product and technology offensive in the history of the brand," Herbert Diess, Chief Executive of the Volkswagen brand and a VW management board member, said.

Analysts see reviving the VW brand, which has long suffered from high staff and development costs, as crucial to the group's ability to recover from a diesel emissions scandal that has gripped the carmaker.

The investments unveiled on Saturday are part of Volkswagen's 72 billion euro spending plan for the 2018-2022 period that was announced on Friday.

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(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Jan Schwartz; Editing by Hugh Lawson)