Category Archives: Volkswagen

News and reviews of Volkswagen electric cars (including plug-in hybrids).

Frankfurt Motor Show: Love, hate and electric cars

September 26, 2019Electric Cars, ID.3, News, Reviews and Comment, Sales, VolkswagenRepost

I have a love-hate relationship with international motor shows such as this week’s extravaganza in Frankfurt.

On the one hand, if you like cars, if you have a single drop of petrol in your veins, it’s impossible not to be impressed by the array of awesome engineering on display. And that of course is the general idea.

Manufacturers spend huge sums developing their latest four-wheeled fantasies, laden with up-to-the-minute electronic gizmos, which apparently will do everything for you except brush your teeth. They want you to be impressed.

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For many years now, the dominant themes have been electrification and automation.

At the major European shows in Frankfurt, Geneva and Paris there’s been endless speculative talk about the need to develop battery powered cars, and about how we’ll live with self-driving machines.

But here in Frankfurt, what used to be speculation is becoming reality. The launch of Volkswagen’s ID.3 is being seen as a landmark moment. Not because it looks particularly flashy or exotic – it doesn’t – but because this is the first purpose-built electric car the German giant has produced, the first fruit of a €30bn (£27bn) investment programme, designed to turn the company into a market leader in electric cars.

There’s an irony here, of course. Four years ago, Volkswagen was a very different company. It was during the 2015 show in Frankfurt that the US environmental authorities dropped their bombshell, accusing the German company of deliberately manipulating emissions tests. Executive heads rolled, billions of dollars in fines were paid, and the company embarked on a very different corporate strategy.

Volkswagen reveals its mass-market ID.3, an electric car with up to 341 miles of range

September 22, 2019Electric Cars, ID.3, News, Reviews and Comment, VolkswagenRepost

Volkswagen introduced Monday the ID.3, the first model in its new all-electric ID brand and the beginning of the automaker’s ambitious plan to sell 1 million EVs annually by 2025.

The ID.3 debut, which is ahead of the IAA International Motor Show in Frankfurt, is an important milestone for Volkswagen. The company upended its entire business strategy in the wake of the diesel emissions cheating scandal that erupted in September 2015. Now, four years later, VW is starting to show more than just concept vehicles for its newly imagined electric, connected and carbon-neutral brand.

Information about the ID.3, which was unveiled alongside a new VW logo and brand design, has trickled out for months now. Monday’s reveal finally fills in some much-needed details on the interior, battery, infotainment and driver assistance systems.

The upshot: Everything about the ID.3, from its size and styling to its battery range and pricing, is aiming for the mass-market category.

The electric hatchback is similar in size to the VW Golf. But this is no VW Golf. The aim here, and one Volkswagen just might have achieved, was to signal the beginning of a new brand.

Numerous details in the special edition version of the ID.3, including a panorama tilting glass roof edged in black and interactive LED headlights that have “eyelids” that flutter when the driver approaches the parked vehicle, help drive the future-is-here point home.

The ID.3 will only be sold in Europe and have a starting price under €30,000 (about $33,000). North America’s first chance at an all-electric VW will be the ID Crozz, which is coming to the U.S. at the end of 2020.

Volkswagen ID.R breaks 20-year-old Goodwood hillclimb record set by V10 F1 car

Volkswagen has been racking up EV records with its ID.R all-electric racecar, and today the VW ID.R piloted by Romain Dumas managed to beat a record which has been held for 20 years — Nick Heidfeld’s record run of the Goodwood hillclimb in the 10-cylinder McLaren MP4/13 which dominated the 1998 Formula 1 season.

Nico Rosberg Formula E Gen2 car at 2018 Berlin E-Prix (Image: Wikimedia/KAgamemnon

The previous record was 41.6 seconds for the 1.86km (1.16mi) hillclimb course. Volkswagen managed to bring that record down to 41.18. They have more runs to go this weekend, so it’s entirely possible that the record might be lowered again.

VW brought their ID.R to the hillclimb last year in an attempt to set the record, and they managed to set an EV record with a 43.05-second run but fell short of the overall record. This year, after taking the ID.R to Nurburgring and setting an EV record there, VW modified their package a little and managed to make the car quicker. In the last year VW also managed to set an all-time record at Pikes Peak with the ID.R.

Has the country that invented the car fallen behind on tech?

June 5, 2019Audi, BMW, Electric Cars, Mercedes, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, Porsche, VolkswagenRepost

The relief was palpable from Berlin to Munich when Germany – announced its latest GDP figures.

After months of gloom, modest growth of 0.4pc in the first quarter was heralded as a sign Europe’s largest economy might weather the global slowdown better than most experts predict.

For the first time in six months, Germany is growing again, and the figures follow last week’s announcement that exports rose unexpectedly by 1.5pc in March.

That such lean figures are seen as something to celebrate is a clear indication of how Europe’s industrial powerhouse has slowed – and behind the numbers lurk unpalatable truths.

That there is any growth is down to the service sector and a construction boom fuelled by housing shortages.

The manufacturing sector that is the engine of the German economy, in particular its fabled car industry, is in trouble. Automotive orders fell 5.3pc in the first quarter. In mechanical engineering, the outlook is more bleak, with orders down 7.3pc.

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But its growth strategy is built around industrial exports, and that has left it exposed. The car industry – the jewel in Germany’s economic crown – has been through a torrid time since the emissions scandal in 2015, when Volkswagen admitted it had installed software in millions of cars to help cheat emissions tests.

This year EU regulators accused BMW, Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler and VW of colluding to block the development and introduction of clean air technology, raising the spectre of multi-billion euro fines.

Already facing expensive recalls, carmakers have run into the growing wave of diesel bans as cities struggle to bring air quality within EU limits. In Germany alone, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt have outlawed older diesel cars.

VW announced investment in a new battery cell production plant this week but German carmakers lag far behind US and Chinese rivals in battery technology. The country that invented the car is rapidly falling behind.

The urgency of the shift to electric cars isn’t just about climate change

June 2, 2019Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution, Renault, VolkswagenRepost

Vehicle emissions regulations are meant to promote clean air and reduce carbon dioxide in order to combat climate change.

In Europe, aggressive new rules are also a direct response to a massive diesel-emissions scandal, accelerating the shift to electric vehicles, said Renault CEO Thierry Bolloré.

The tightening of emissions limits has created huge tension in the automotive industry, Bolloré said in Paris at Viva Technology, a flagship European tech conference this week. In 2017, the European Commission proposed reducing CO2 emissions for new cars and vans by 30% in 2030, compared with levels in 2021. The aggressive rules are seen, in part, as an attempt to regain credibility after regulators failed to prevent Volkswagen and other automakers from cheating existing standards.

Bolloré said he was surprised by the backlash on emissions rules following the “dieselgate” scandal: Volkswagen admitted in 2015 that software was used to cheat on pollution tests for as many as 11 million of its diesel vehicles. Later, a host of other automakers, including Renault, were reported to have made diesel vehicles that produced more pollution than tests seemed to indicate.

“It’s not fully rational,” Bolloré said of the regulatory response, which is reshaping the industry. He added that it’s giving a boost to electric vehicle development, and that the French car giant he runs is already making a “modest” amount of money from its electric-vehicle business. (Bolloré also credited Tesla’s efforts to build mass-market electric cars as a kind of revolution for the industry, but noted that the company is having a hard time making money.)

VW received 10,000 ID.3 orders in the first 24 hours

May 20, 2019Electric Cars, ID.3, News, Reviews and Comment, VolkswagenRepost

Volkswagen’s electric people’s car looks like it could be a huge success

It was a bold statement from Volkswagen to claim that the ID.3 electric car would represent just the third chapter in the company’s long history. After all, the first two were rather successful – the original Beetle and then all generations of the Golf sold rather well didn’t they?

Still, if pre-orders are anything to go by, it seems as though the newly-named ID.3 could live up to that claim. Within 24 hours of opening up sales earlier this week, VW received a staggering 10,000 pre-orders.

All of those orders were for the 1st Edition spec, which includes the mid-spec battery and a range of over 260 miles at a cost of less than €40,000. Unfortunately, the camo-wrap above isn’t an option – we’ll see the final product at the Frankfurt motor show later this year.

EV sales stalling as customers left waiting more than a year for a car

May 16, 2019Audi, Electric Cars, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Kona Electric, News, Reviews and Comment, Niro EV, Smart, Tesla, VolkswagenRepost

Britain’s electric vehicle revolution is being hampered by a “bottleneck” in global battery production, as demand far outstrips supply of zero-emission vehicles.

An investigation by the Press Association found that some dealers were telling customers they could be waiting more than a year if they placed an order for an EV today, with some manufacturers confirming they couldn’t guarantee the number of vehicles coming to the UK in the future.

Kia and Hyundai appear to be the worst affected, with the former’s e-Niro and latter’s Kona and Ioniq Electric experiencing 12-month-plus wait times.

Jaguar, Tesla, Nissan, Smart, Audi and Volkswagen are all also experiencing delays with their electric vehicle offerings of between two and five months.

A Kia spokesperson blamed global demand and battery supply, calling the e-Niro “a victim of its own success” and adding that the South Korean firm’s 2019 UK allocation of about 800 cars sold out within two weeks of going on sale in January.

He said: “The simple fact is our battery suppliers cannot make battery packs quickly enough for the demand, and if we haven’t got battery packs, we cannot sell the cars.”

Both Kia and its sister company Hyundai said they were taking reservations for 2020 deliveries and would contact interested customers once pricing and delivery time frames were clearer.

Volkswagen Predicts EVs Will Go Mainstream In 2022

April 5, 2019e-Golf, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, VolkswagenRepost

Volkswagen may have been a little late to the game for crossovers in the US, but it’s done a commendable job of catching up with offerings like the new Atlas and redesigned Tiguan. But the automaker has no intention of falling behind when it comes to electric vehicles.

We sat down with Volkswagen Group North American CEO Scott Keogh at Geneva to discuss a wide range of topics, among them VW’s upcoming EV lineup launch. Keogh believes that 2022 will be the “sweet spot” on the market when there’ll be enough EV products out there for them to become mainstream. But there’s work to be done beforehand.

“Profitability, let’s make no mistake, comes from scale. In my mind this is an opportunity to take the scale of the (VW) Group with the (all-electric MEB) platform and be one of the first to push aggressively into the volume side,” Keogh said.

“With electric cars, we can have the scale compared to many of our competitors in the US on the internal combustion engine front. When you start talking about tens of millions of cars on the platform, you can get the pricing into a good place. But if you ask me the more important thing is not on the profitability side but on the revenue side. Can we get enough people to buy the cars?”

There’s been a gradual consumer acceptance of EVs over the past few years and that will hopefully translate to solid sales. But an essential element of making a new product or technology successful is market introduction timing.

“When I look at market research in the US (for EVS), it started with ‘I don’t know what an electric car is’, then it migrated to ‘I know EVs but I’m never going to buy one’, then it went to that interesting place of ‘they’re kind of cool but they’re for someone else.’ Now, it’s moved into ‘I’m going to take a look at one for my next car.’ Make no mistake, timing is certainly a part of that.”

More new models, tougher CO2 rules poised to boost EVs, plug-in hybrids

April 4, 2019Audi, Electric Cars, Mercedes, MINI, News, Reviews and Comment, Peugeot, Sales, Seat, Skoda, Tesla, Volkswagen, VolvoRepost

A lack of choice has been one reason that buyers in Europe have not fully embraced full-electric and electrified plug-in hybrid cars.

But that is quickly changing as automakers prepare to launch more models to prepare for tougher CO2 emissions regulations that start to take effect in 2020.

The number of EVs on sale in Europe will increase to 24 this year from 18 last year as new vehicles such as the Audi e-tron, Tesla Model 3, Mercedes-Benz EQC, Mini EV and full-electric Volvo XC40 crossover hit the market, according to LMC Automotive data — which excludes very-low-volume niche models. The number of plug-in hybrids will nearly double to 53 this year from 27 in 2018, LMC says.

But the real jump will come in 2020, when the number of full-electric cars on sale doubles to 48 and plug-in-hybrid choice reaches almost 100, according to LMC data.

Next year battery-powered cars underpinned by Volkswagen Group’s flexible MEB electric-car platform and aimed at the mass-market will go on sale. VW brand’s Golf-sized I.D. hatchback will come first but it will soon be followed by MEB cars from the Audi, Skoda and Seat brands. They will have ranges of more than 550 km (342 miles), to ease range anxiety fears among car buyers.

It’s no coincidence that 2020 is also when the EU will start fining automakers if they miss their stricter CO2 reduction targets that are being implemented to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for contributing to climate change.

“We have only one target, which is to be compliant for CO2 targets for 2020, so 2019 will be the launch of all our electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles,” Maxime Picat, PSA Group’s operations director for Europe, told journalists in January.

VW threatens to exit important automaker lobbying group over electric vehicle policies

March 31, 2019Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution, VolkswagenRepost

Volkswagen is amongst the legacy automakers now most invested in electric vehicles and they now threaten to exit an important automaker lobbying group over their policies regarding electric vehicles.

Automakers have promoted policies to slow down the adoption of electric vehicles through lobbying groups for years.

Most recently, automakers associations have pushed against efforts to increase average fuel economy, which would have forced EVs to be built in higher volume.

Interestingly, several automakers were claiming to be ‘all-in on electric cars’ while indirectly supporting those lobbying efforts.

Now, Volkswagen appears to be recognizing this issue and is pressuring the Association of the German Automotive Industry (VDA), a powerful lobbying group in Germany, to promote electric vehicles.

Germany’s Welt reported (Translated from German):

“The list of criticisms made at Volkswagen is long. Above all, the association must move away from the strategy of “technology openness” and ensure that all forces are focused exclusively on the enforcement of the battery-electric car. Development and promotion of vehicles with fuel cells and gas engines or other environmentally friendly variants would have to be stopped. This overburden the industry, says VW boss Herbert Diess.”

In short, VW wants the association to stop pushing “alternative fuel” vehicles and focus on battery-electric vehicles.