VW

Britain’s Car Magazine reports that Volkswagen’s BUDD-E electric vehicle has got the green light to go into production for 2020.

Volkswagen’s all-electric BUDD-e concept will make the jump into serial production, CAR understands. The VW BUDD-e concept, first seen at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is an ultramodern take on the VW ‘Microbus’ theme, built upon Volkswagen’s upcoming MEB modular electric platform. Dr Volkmar Tanneberger, head of electronic development and the driving force behind the BUDD-e concept, told CAR magazine’s Ben Barry: ‘[The] basic idea is to develop a modular toolkit and take this flat battery idea into serial production, one motor on the front, one on the rear. The California [camper van] and Transporter [panel van and minibus line] will continue separately as combustion engines.’ ‘You will see a car that looks a lot like this, on the MEB platform, reach production. I can’t say exactly when, but 2020 or thereabouts,’ says Tanneberger.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this.  On one hand, the more electric vehicle options the better and we all know that the electrical vehicle market is lacking in van options. Also, it is clear from the popularity of the  amazing eSamba project that there is a huge market for electric VW Busses.

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The Volkswagen Group confirms this week that CEO Matthias Müller will introduce a new strategy for the company this summer and it will include plans to introduce 20 new electric vehicles through the group’s brands by the end of the decade.
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At the Detroit Auto Show this week, Volkswagen debuted the second generation concept of what it calls an ‘extreme off-road’ vehicle, the Tiguan GTE.
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VW head of electronic development Volkmar Tanneberger was at CES last week and revealed that the next generation all-electric e-Golf will see a roughly 30% increase in range, which should bring it to about 108 miles on a single charge.
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Due to Volkswagen’s and the Environmental Protection Agency’s incapacity to come to deal after discussions over how to fix the cars affected by the emissions tests cheating, the U.S. Department of Justice officially sued the German automaker on behalf of the EPA in federal court on Monday.
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We are kicking off the new year at Electrek with extensive coverage of everything electric vehicle related at CES in Las Vegas this week.

There might be a few surprises, but we made a quick list of the main events, especially the new electric cars debuting at the show, so you can have a good idea of what’s coming in the EV industry in the next few days:
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38 company and environmental group leaders, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, signed an open letter proposing that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) lets VW off the hook in California for having cheated on reporting emissions in its diesel cars and in return, VW would be forced to significantly invest in electric vehicles or other zero-emission vehicles.
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Volkswagen’s Chairman of Passenger Cars Dr. Herbert Diess is scheduled to give a talk and unveil a new electric vehicle concept at the upcoming CES 2016. The company released a teaser picture (see above) for the concept and rumor has it, it could be a new electric version of VW’s flagship Type 2 minibus.
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The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) announced that during the keynote address of Volkswagen’s Chairman of Passenger Cars Dr. Herbert Diess at the upcoming CES 2016, he will unveil a new all-electric concept car.

Diess is scheduled to deliver a keynote address about “electric mobility driving the automotive market” on January 5 at the Cosmopolitan’s Chelsea Theater.
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Dieselgate is starting to significantly impact Volkswagen’s sales in the US. The company published its November reports this week (see below) and the company suffered a 24.72% average decrease across all models.

The all-electric e-Golf is one of the rare model bringing the average up, but sales haven’t really increased since the scandal. They delivered 472 e-Golf units in November, up from 119 during the same period last, but it was the first month of availability in 2014. For a better comparison, VW delivered 596 e-Golfs in October.
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Volkswagen announced today that the Golf GTE Sport plug-in hybrid will make its North American debut at the Los Angeles International Auto Show, which starts November 19. Although the vehicle is still only in its concept phase, considering the “Dieselgate” situation, some expect VW to accelerate its electric car projects in order to compensate for the recent scandal, which could lead to the potential commercialization of the GTE Sport. 
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Electric vehicles are here to stay, there’s very little doubt about that at this point, but which automakers are making sure that EVs are not a fad, but a trend? A new report from EV-Sales, a website tracking electric vehicle sales through car registration data, compiled the top automotive groups selling EVs in volume.
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