Volkswagen, whose shares rose as much as 3.8 per cent, did not specifically say how much the plan will cost. It said in December that it planned to spend €35 billion ($41.7bn) on e-mobility as a whole by 2025.
The group had been a laggard on electrification until it admitted in 2015 to cheating on US diesel emissions tests and had to deal with new Chinese quotas for electric vehicles. It now has one of the most ambitious programmes in the industry.
Volkswagen said the European factories will have a joint production capacity of up to 240 gigawatt hours (GWh) a year, adding the first 40 GWh would come from Sweden s Northvolt, with production starting in 2023.
Amazon declined to comment on Mr Biyani s remarks. Reliance did not respond to a request for comment.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the market regulator that has been reviewing the deal for months, did not respond to a request for comment.
SEBI and India s stock exchanges could still reject or take more time to approve the deal, which is critical for the survival of Future Retail, whose more than 1,700 outlets were hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Future Retail has warned that failure to close the deal could lead to the company s liquidation and job losses for more than 29,000 employees.