VW

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.
Expand
Expanding
Close

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.
Expand
Expanding
Close

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.
Expand
Expanding
Close

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.
Expand
Expanding
Close

For the past months, Volkswagen has been teasing its all-electric ‘I.D. concept’ ahead of the Paris Motors Show. First with a video teaser and followed by design sketches.

Now just a day before the press event in Paris, VW revealed the full design of the vehicle with a series of renders. It also released a few details and confirmed that they aim for a parallel production with the Golf in 2020.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Two weeks ago, Volkswagen confirmed that it will unveil an all-electric concept car at the 2016 Paris Motor show next month and released a few teaser images. Now the German Automaker releases the design sketches of the model – revealing a few design features in the process.

Expand
Expanding
Close

When Volkswagen announced its plan to build 2 to 3 million all-electric cars a year and unveil 30 new models under its brands by 2025, we all thought of new VW, Audi or Porsche models, but now the German automaker announced a new model under its Volkswagen Commercial vehicle brand.
Expand
Expanding
Close

We’ve got another story about Volkswagen playing with numbers related to the performance of their vehicles, but this time it’s not about vehicle emissions. It’s actually about their solution to those vehicle emissions: electric cars.

Volkswagen has yet to reveal its next flagship electric vehicle, which it aims to compete with the Tesla Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt EV, but it is already comparing it to Tesla and using at best questionable methods to do so.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Volkswagen is expected to explain in more details its impressive plan to build 2 to 3 million all-electric cars a year and unveil 30 new models by 2025. One of the first models will be unveiled at the 2016 Paris Motor show, which starts the first week of October, and VW released today a teaser for the vehicle.
Expand
Expanding
Close

The Volkswagen Group has been increasing its efforts in the electric vehicle segment ever since the ‘DieselGate’ scandal. Mostly through its new mission to  build 2 to 3 million all-electric cars a year and unveil 30 new models by 2025.

Today, we learn that that the German automaker signed a joint venture memorandum of understanding with China’s Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co. that would effectively allow VW to accelerate their production of electric vehicles by mass producing them in China as well as sharing technology with the local manufacturers to increase the amount of EVs in the country.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Back in May, we shared a report from German newspaper Handelsblatt, which has often produced reliable insider reports on the German auto industry, citing insider sources saying that Volkswagen was about to present to its board of directors a plan to build a ‘multi-billion euro battery factory’.

In a new interview with the same newspaper this week, VW CEO Matthias Müller denies plans for the giant electric vehicle battery factory.
Expand
Expanding
Close

The Annual North American Concept Vehicle of the Year Awards gave the ‘2016 Concept Truck of the Year’ award to Volkswagen for the BUDD-e all-electric minibus concept. BUDD-e is a bit polarizing. While most EV enthusiasts would be happy to see a “microbus” with a 100 kWh battery pack, the design of the vehicle generally hasn’t been well-received and reminds of people of the ‘weirdmobile’ stigma attached to EVs, but the panel of automotive journalists acting as judges for the award disagreed.

Either way, it’s interesting to see an all-electric vehicle win the award for ‘Concept Truck of the Year’. That must be a first.
Expand
Expanding
Close

A new research report from Lux Research looked into the projected growth of the battery sector for electric vehicles (BEVs and PHEVs) and concluded that the market will rise to $10 Billion in 2020 with six large carmakers led by Tesla accounting for 90% of the demand.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Earlier this year – not long after the Dieselgate scandal – the Volkswagen Group announced a new direction for its lineup of vehicles with a plan to introduce 20 new electric vehicles through the group’s brands by the end of the decade.

Today, the automaker extended the timeline to 2025 and said that it will introduce “more than 30 new electric vehicles during the next 10 years”. Earlier this year, CEO Matthias Müller was talking about both all-electric and plug-in hybrids, but now he is making a statement to go all-electric and confirmed that the “more than 30 new models” will all be “purely battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs)”.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Tesla’s brand has significantly increased in value over the past year, especially since the Model 3 unveiling and the more than 373,000 reservations it received. On the other hand, Volkswagen’s brand took a big hit following the ‘Dieselgaste’ scandal, so much so that Tesla has now surpassed the company’s VW brand in “brand value”.

BrandZ published its annual report of the 100 most valuable brands and Tesla knocked VW out of the top 10 in the car category.
Expand
Expanding
Close

German newspaper Handelsblatt, which has often produced reliable insider reports on the German auto industry, now cites insider sources saying that Volkswagen is about to present to its board of directors a plan to build a ‘multi-billion euro battery factory’.

The publication suggests that the plan is likely to be approved.

The battery cell supply chain is close to the number one priority of any automaker looking to manufacture electric vehicles in high volume. Ever since the ‘Dieselgate’ scandal, VW has been under pressure to introduce more electric vehicles to its lineup and earlier this year, it announced plans to introduce 20 new electric vehicles through the group’s brands by the end of the decade.
Expand
Expanding
Close

There’s been some confusion about the imminent upgrade to Volkswagen’s all-electric e-Golf versus its next generation expected to be available by the end of the decade. Dr. Volkmar Tanneberger, Head of Electric Vehicle Development at VW, cleared up some of the confusion this weekend during a press meeting for the Formula E race in Berlin.

The executive confirmed that the 2017 e-Golf will receive a battery upgrade by the end of the year and that it will allow for an NEDC rated range of 300 km (186 miles) on a single charge.
Expand
Expanding
Close

At the Beijing Auto Show today, Volkswagen unveiled the new electric SUV it was teasing in a press release last week. The new plug-in hybrid SUV is called the T-Prime concept and it appears to be VW’s answer to the success of Mitsubishi’s Outlander PHEV.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Vokswagen sent out a press release this morning with new images to tease an upcoming electric plug-in hybrid SUV concept to be unveiled at the Beijing Auto show next week.

The company describes the concept as a “premium SUV’ and it will release the concept under its VW brand – even though Volkswagen as another premium electric SUV, although all-electric, coming out under its luxury brand: Audi.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Volkswagen has been trying to improve its brand image since the ‘DieselGate’ scandal last year, and part of the effort to remedy the situation has been to reiterate its commitment to electric vehicles. CEO Matthias Müller has since announced that the group’s brands will introduce 20 new electric vehicles by the end of the decade.

More recently, VW decided to showcase its EV initiatives through a public event at its ‘Transparent Factory’ in Dresden.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Volkswagen recently confirmed (via Autoblog) that it is recalling certain model year 2015-2016 e-Golf vehicles manufactured between May 21, 2014 and March 1, 2016. We are talking about 5,561 units potentially affected. The problem is in the battery management system (BMS) which can falsely detect an electrical surge and shutdown the electric drive as a result.

The fix is fairly simple: a visit at your local dealership for a BMS software update.
Expand
Expanding
Close