VW

Matthias Müller took the helms of Volkswagen following the Dieselgate scandal and he quickly positioned the German automaker to push for electric cars, but he is now reportedly facing an internal backlash from the company’s leadership, which is not entirely sold on electric vehicles.
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VW has been quick to compare its upcoming first all-electric vehicle built from the ground up, codenamed I.D. Concept, to Tesla’s Model 3.

Specs-wise, it appears to be competitive with the Model 3 on paper, but they never gave a precise price range until now.
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Last week, we reported on Volkswagen’s research group unveiling an all-electric car platform and a mobile charging robot prototype.

The latter seemed to only be a high-level research project, but now Volkswagen announced that it is working with robot manufacturer Kuka to make it a reality.
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The $2 billion that Volkswagen has to invest in electric vehicle infrastructure in the US as part of its court settlement for the DieselGate scandal is starting to turn into real charging stations.

They opened the first fast-charging stations in the Washington, D.C. area.
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Volkswagen is preparing to unveil two more all-electric vehicles as part of its series of new I.D. concepts that will serve as the basis of its new electric car strategy.

They should be the third and fourth vehicles on the new platform and hit production in 2020-2021.
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As part of its new mission to become a leader in electrification around the world, German automaker Volkswagen confirmed that it received government approval in China for a new joint venture with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC Motor).

The deal was approved for the annual production of 100,000 all-electric vehicles.
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Even though VW has been making some large-scale commitments to electric vehicles, more recently through a giant $10 billion investment over the next 5 years, it can be hard to take them seriously when the only EVs that they built from the ground up are some “weirdmobile” concepts – like the one pictured above.

Nonetheless, the German automaker is hyper confident that it can go from laggard to leader in electric vehicles. CEO Herbert Diess went as far as saying that “anything Tesla can do, we can surpass.”
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While electric vehicle enthusiasts are tired of only seeing electric concepts coming out of VW, it looks like the German automaker is ready to back those concepts with a massive 9 billion euros ($10 billion) investment to bring them to production.

Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Müller conceded that “the future of driving is electric” and they plan to be part of it, but they are having trouble reconciling it with their current internal combustion engine business.
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Volkswagen recently submitted both its plans to invest $2 billion in electric vehicle infrastructure in the US as part of its court settlements with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the DieselGate scandal.

We reported on the main details of the plan for California, which includes installing ultra-fast 320 kW chargers, and the plan for the whole country, which includes a ‘nationwide 150 kW+ fast charging network’.

Now other automakers are contesting the plans and want to have a say in how VW should spend that money. Some ideas are OK, though the contestation could result in slowing the rollout of the EV infrastructure, while other demands are plain ridiculous.
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After Audi unveiled its all-electric crossover this morning, another Volkswagen brand, VW, unveiled its own all-electric crossover concept.

The vehicle, called I.D. CROZZ, is the latest member of the series of I.D. concepts for VW’s next generation all-electric vehicles using the German automaker’s Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB).
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As part of its court settlement with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the DieselGate scandal, Volkswagen agreed to invest $2 billion in electric vehicle infrastructure in the US. Last month, we reported on their plan for California, which includes installing ultra-fast 320 kW chargers, where they need to spend a significant part of the settlement.

But the rest of the US is not going to be left empty-handed. VW and the EPA released the national plan and it includes a “nationwide 150 kW+ fast-charging network” along highways, which is by far the most exciting part of the plan for EV drivers. 
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VW has been unveiling a series of new all-electric concept vehicles called “I.D. concepts”. While only concepts for now, the German automakers presents them as the basis for a series of new electric vehicles to use its MEB platform and go into production around 2020.

After a compact car and a minibus, VW now confirms that the next vehicle is an all-electric crossover and it will feature something that will sound familiar: “autopilot mode”.
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Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess confirmed that they are putting all their effort to ready their new MEB platform and launch their new electric vehicles in 2020 – just in time to comply with European and Chinese emission standards.

The German automaker’s leadership said that they will have to bring EVs to market in volumes in order to comply with those standards, which proves that strict emission standards can encourage automakers to invest heavily in electric vehicle production.
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Chinese clones are not exactly rare in the electric vehicle sector. We saw a copycat of Lit Motors’ bike last year and just yesterday we reported on Faraday Future, a China-backed company, accusing NIO, another China-backed company, of cloning its design.

But this latest example goes a few steps further and completely copied the Volkswagen e-Up electric car.
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Tesla’s strategy has clearly inspired the electrification plans of several automakers and new startups. For example, former GM executive Bob Lutz admitted that Tesla’s Roadster pushed him to make the Chevy Volt happen.

Now Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess admits that what Tesla did with the Model S forced the automaker to rethink its plans for the Phaeton.
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VW has presented the I.D. Concept as its first major entry in electric vehicles with an affordable long-range option to compete with the Tesla Model 3.

In a somewhat surprising move, the German automaker has allowed some media outlets to drive the wobbly show car they used to unveil the concept last year.
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VW debuted its 2017 e-Golf with a slightly refreshed look and a new 35.8 kWh battery pack at the LA Auto Show last year. The all-electric vehicle received its official EPA rating today and it increased the range to a combined highway and city cycle of 125 miles.
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Volkswagen is among the very few major automakers who are committed to the mass production of electric vehicles. Undoubtedly pushed by the backlash of the ‘Dieselgate’ scandal, the German automaker invested heavily in its new MEB platform for electric vehicles last year and announced plans to build 2 to 3 million all-electric cars a year and unveil 30 new models by 2025.

The company has since unveiled a few concepts using the platform and they are now laying out their design direction for EVs in more details.
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While a new generation of Volkswagen’s iconic Beetle has been expected on the Golf’s platform, the German automaker says that it is now considering to make the car on its new MEB electric platform as part of its electrification plan.
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VW kicked things off at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week with a new all-electric and autonomous microbus concept: I.D. BUZZ.

The vehicle is a significant step up from the previous BUDD-e electric microbus concept and actually looks like a more modern version of the classic VW microbus. It is, of course, updated with all the latest tech and more importantly, an all-electric drivetrain using Volkswagen’s upcoming MEB platform for electric vehicles.
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After the ‘Dieselgate’ scandal, Volkswagen has come out as one of the major automakers most committed to electric cars. Earlier this year, the company announced its plan to build 2 to 3 million all-electric cars a year and to unveil 30 new models by 2025 – across all its brands (VW, Audi, Porsche, etc.).

Tesla is aiming for similar volumes and we all know what the company did in order to secure the battery supply to support that kind of electric car production; the Gigafactory. Earlier this year, an insider report came out saying that Volkswagen was about to present to its board of directors a project similar to Tesla’s Gigafactory and build a ‘multi-billion euro battery factory’, but Volkswagen CEO, Matthias Müller, later denied the plan.

VW’s management is apparently now more open to the idea of Volkswagen building its own battery factory following a restructuring of the company announced last week.
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