As part of its principled shift away from diesel vehicles towards electrics following the diesel emissions cheating scandal (or, more likely, as part of its image rehabilitation strategy), Volkswagen recently revealed that it is now intending to release the world’s first high-volume, mass market electric car.
The purported model is intended to be a competitor to the Tesla Model 3 and to GM’s Chevy Bolt — going by comments made by company reps anyways. No exact pricing has been revealed as of yet for the currently theoretical mass market offering.
One is of course probably right to remain skeptical about the company’s willingness to actually bring such a model to market anytime in the near future — rehabilitating its image, on the other hand, is an immediate concern. So one wonders how serious it is.
At any rate, here’s more via Autoblog:
Using new 48-volt onboard power supply technology that will deliver a real-world range of at least 186 miles, the unnamed vehicle is understood to be part of an innovative plan by newly installed Volkswagen CEO, Dr Herbert Diess, to improve the brand’s image.
Dr Diess wants to make his mark in the automotive world with the world’s first high-volume, accessible electric car and although it will share much of its technology with the EV version of the upcoming eighth-generation VW Golf, it will do so with a lower cost. Although it’s not clear whether the car will be a sedan or a hatch, it will offer unique styling and a potentially better cruising range than the e-Golf.
It’s not clear yet whether the company is planning to release the new unnamed EV before or after the release of the next-gen e-Golf — which is still a few years off (~2018).
Interesting but what exactly do they mean by high volume? Even if they exclude the Leaf, Zoe, Model S and others I can’t see how they could be first. By the time this car could be released, the bolt and other cars would have a huge head start.
Interesting indeed. But I think (i hope) they really mean it, becauze being one of the biggest automakers in the world they sure can ramp up production of any car really fast. Especially when toyota is dreaming about their hydrogen “future”.
Hail Mary press release.
High volume in my opinion would be 200k to 500k per year. Similar to sales of Honda Accord, Civic, Camry, Fusion, CRV, and Focus. In the U.S., for a vehicle to attain those targets, it seems it has to be a sedan or compact SUV, not a hatchback (or at least look like a sedan, e.g. the Model S does not look like a hatchback at all.)
Not first, but I’m quite confident that if they don’t sink under all the fines they have to pay to different governments, they’ll be quite successful in the long run. At least they’re pretty serious about EVs, can you say the same about FIAT, Mazda, Peugeot etc. ?