Volkswagen is confident that cost cuts will help it raise profit margins in the coming years, the world's second-largest carmaker said on Tuesday, a day after outlining an ambitious electric mobility expansion.

"Our good performance in 2020, a year dominated by crisis, will give us momentum for accelerating our transformation," Chief Executive Herbert Diess said in a statement.

Preferred shares in the company rose as much as 5 percent to their highest level since July 16, 2015, given the carmaker a market valuation of more than 116 billion euros ($138 billion). They are up more than a third year to date.

Volkswagen aims to more than double deliveries of electric vehicles to 1 million this year, it said, adding it would also apply a standardized platform model introduced for vehicle production years ago to software, batteries and charging.

Diess' comments come a day after Volkswagen unveiled plans to build half a dozen battery cell plants in Europe and expand infrastructure for charging electric vehicles globally, accelerating efforts to overtake Tesla.

Volkswagen confirmed it aimed for an operating margin of 7-8 percent by 2025, adding it would likely end 2021 at the upper end of a 5-6.5 percent target corridor.

Stellantis, the world's fourth-largest carmaker created through the merger of FCA and Peugeot maker PSA in January, is targeting an adjusted operating profit margin of 5.5-7.5 percent this year.

This will be achieved by lowering fixed costs by 2 billion euros by 2023 compared with 2020, a decline of 5 percent, as well as a decline of 7 percent in materials costs over the same period, Volkswagen said.

To get a better handle on personnel costs Volkswagen on Sunday offered early or partial retirement to older employees in a move sources said could cut up to 4,000 jobs at its plants in Germany.

The group employs about 670,000 staff globally.