Volkswagen Signals Higher Transition Cost From Autonomous Shift

Volkswagen CEO, Herbert Diess, chairman of the supervisory board Hans Dieter Poetsch, Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil and head of VW works council, Bernd Osterloh, address the media after a supervisory board meeting at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, Germany on Nov. 15, 2019. Fabian Bimmer/Reuters

MUNICH—Volkswagen may have to spend more to deliver its planned transformation, the German carmaker’s supervisory board chairman said, particularly a shift towards autonomous driving.

The world’s second-largest automaker, which plans to invest 150 billion euros ($178 billion) in its business by 2025, has repeatedly said that it can fund the transition towards electric vehicles and autonomous driving based on current cash flows.