BERLIN — Germany’s Volkswagen Group said on Thursday that it would drive forward the electrification of its European plants with the aim to become the global market leader in electric mobility by 2025.

Over the next five years, the German carmaker is planning a total investment of 159 billion euros (almost 180 billion U.S. dollars), 56 percent of which will go to future topics such as electromobility and digitization, according to Volkswagen. This is a significant increase in such investment compared with the previous year.

“The additional investment requirement is mainly due to the accelerated ramp-up of e-mobility,” Volkswagen noted, also mentioning the “establishment of own battery gigafactories and vertical integration in the battery value chain” as factors.

Volkswagen expects one in four vehicles sold by 2026 to have a battery-electric drive system.

After a power struggle within the group lasting several weeks, Volkswagen also announced on Thursday that Herbert Diess would remain CEO and that he would assume responsibility for the automotive software division CARIAD within the group’s board of management at the beginning of 2022