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Volkswagen Bets Big On Electric Cars, Plans 30 Models By 2025 (usatoday.com)
An anonymous reader writes: German automaker Volkswagen plans to deliver 30 electric plug-in models by 2025. The new plan comes in the wake of a devastating emissions scandal that cast doubt on the future of its once-beloved diesel cars. It also exposes the immense challenges that the company will face internally. Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller suggested that Volkswagen Group, whose brands include Audi and Porsche, will "significantly" reduce the number of models it makes and will slash almost $9 billion in spending annually to bolster the bottom line.
before 2025
They can buy the optional two cylinder range extender to stink up the air.
Actually that is the proper way to make an electric car until storage tech gets beyond the stone age. It doesn't require anything beyond the existing infrastructure, so it can *just work*
No need to worry about faked emissions results if there are no emissions....
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when they discontinued the air-cooled beetles. Now they're "fart a fig newton"
I bet there will be a diesel engine hidden away somewhere, this is just a trick so that they will not be tested.
Can't wait to see how VW fakes either their electrical efficiency, or maybe they'll go for faking the range this time.
My trust in VW == 0.
VW, you're full of it. I still have a diesel Golf collecting dust in my garage and I love it. I'd buy another car from you if:
1) It's electric and hooks up to the standard charging stations
2) It can run 150 miles after eight years in the cold (the wimpy 80-100 mile range in perfect conditions on your eGolf is shit)
3) You get some "self driving" features in there (this is my commuter car and I want to be napping, not driving)
However, this "30 models" boast looks like bullshit tossed up to distract the regulators who are (rightfully) about to smack you around some. Come out with a realistic plan that former VW buyers like me can support, though, and yeah, I can look past the "clean diesel" scandal - not too many of us looking at the engines in the 2006+ models really believed you pulled it off anyway.
So is this with or without the looming threat of billions of dollars in fines?
https://news.slashdot.org/stor...
=Smidge=
Inch-for-inch a Golf, unlike a Volt or Fusion or Focus. 84 miles. USD$21K after credits. If my next house is oriented right, my first two calls are to SolarCity and VW. If this is their first consumer stab at it, can't imagine where they will be in 10 years.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
They can buy the optional two cylinder range extender to stink up the air. Actually that is the proper way to make an electric car until storage tech gets beyond the stone age.
No reason a range-extender should be two-cycle. Two-cycle are noisy greasy polluting engines, not really good for much except lawn mowers.
Actually, since a range extender engine can be optimized to run at a single speed, doesn't need to provide torque at low RPM, and needs to provide electrical efficiency rather than mechanical power, you don't really even need an internal combustion engine-- I'll suggest using a small Stirling engine.
For another option the Model 3 would be $28k with the same credit and have around twice the range (200 vs 100) if you can wait until 2017. Remember the federal tax credit is phased out after 200,000 vehicles.
What about the PodRide? It should cost under USD$4K, one seater, 25km/h, 60km electric range and human-powered mode for exercise.
Volkswagen has admitted cheating on it's emissions tests. When the vehicles are stationary and the steering wheel is not being moved, power from the battery is applied directly to the wheels. In normal driving, however, 80% of the power is diverted to a Power-to-Gas system, which is then dumped directly into the atmosphere for no apparent reason whatsoever.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
If my next house is oriented right, my first two calls are to SolarCity and VW.
Oh goodie, another person happy to be deluded that those options are "reasonable" because taxpayers are spending tens of thousands of dollars to make them look like that.
While that might work for you, what you fail to understand is that it won't work for everyone, because the tax credits can't be applied that far, and without them the economics fall apart.
Sigh... No wonder Democrats get into office... So many low information idiots willing to vote for them...
But will their "electric" cars still run on gasoline? We know how VW likes to pull the wool over the consumers eyes...
I believe diesel cars could instead run on whale oil
Not to mention places like Los Angeles, where our infrastructure is shit,
Hey if you choose to live somewhere where the power infrastructure sucks that's on you. LA is a fine place but most of the US doesn't have much difficulty getting power reliably. If it's a big problem for you there are lots of other places in the US where you can live a very happy life.
Just what we all need, electric cars that we can't charge because the power's out, and can't afford to charge because we've already got second mortgages just to keep the house cool when it's 110 outside.
If the power is out charging your car is probably the least of your problems. Get a backup generator and charge your car that way if it's such a concern to you. Works fine and if it's big enough you can power your house at the same time.
Electric cars are a great idea, but some places just aren't prepared for a massive influx of them.
There isn't going to be a massive influx of them. It's going to take many years for them to gain enough market share to really cause heartburn on the grid. Plenty of time to upgrade the grid. Plus you'll see lots of hybrids before you see lots of pure electrics most likely.
I bet there'll be a little tiny box in each one, (like the one Nikola Tesla built) which generates enormous useful energy, from no apparent source... meanwhile causing untold pollution in nearby parallel universes.
Headline: "Volkswagon Electric Cars Cheat on Emmissions Test -- Actually burning diesel"
All cars result in emissions.
Explain to me how an electric car getting it's power from a nuclear power plant is generating emissions. I have three nuclear plants withing a 4 hour drive of my house and they provide a very substantial percentage of the electricity in my state so I could easily claim that my electric vehicle is effectively 100% nuclear powered. I'm exaggerating of course but you get my drift. Your point isn't silly but it's a lot easier to control emissions at a power plant than it is to control them from 100,000 tailpipes.
If EVs increase electricity consumption faster than zero emissions power sources (nuclear, renewables) can be built up to provide it, the logical thing that's going to happen is that power companies are going to build more coal and gas plants to generate that additional electricity. So the additional electricity generated to power EVs is going to almost entirely come from coal and gas.
Some of them will certainly be fossil fuel powered for the foreseeable future. However we are in no danger of electric vehicles overwhelming our renewable generating capacity any time soon so your point is a tad specious.
When taxpayers stop spending $5.3 trillion a year to subsidize fossil fuels, I'll start to worry about renewable subsidies.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Tax payers (and even non-payers, for that matters), already pay the pollution cost every time someone drives a petrol car. How is that any better?
What the hell, dude?
The eGolf is a real car that you can really buy now. SolarCity is also a real thing.
If the GP poster would be happy with an eGolf and SolarCity, who the hell are you to say he/she is "deluded" or "happy to be deluded" about it?
Sheesh. Are you like this in person? Do you bitch out waiters at restaurants over trivial stuff too?
If you have a point somewhere in your obnoxious drivel, it would seem to be "tax rebates make these things seem to be a better deal than they are." I'm just guessing here because your post was high on flame and low on content. Well guess what, solar panels do pay for themselves even without tax rebates, and even if the eGolf cost $7500 extra, it would still be a real car that real people can buy, and it might be a rational choice depending on someone's driving habits.
Besides that, tax credits are a common way for government to encourage behavior that it wants. If the USA as a country decides to have more installed solar capacity, one way to get it is to give tax rebates to people who install solar panels. There's nothing wrong with people taking advantage of this. If the policy works as intended, all the sales of solar panels will cause economy of scale to kick in and the solar panels will be cheaper for everyone, at which point there would be no need for tax rebates, yet solar panels would still "work for everyone" as you said.
The taxpayers also pay you to blow up other countries for profit. No need to thank us. Stupid Republicans.
brush motors banned, millions of cars sidelined.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I didn't choose to live here. I grew up here, family moved down here in '84. It's hard to just pick up and move after 30+ years.
If you are an adult then you absolutely have chosen to live there. Its a big world and if you just want to stay in one tiny corner of it for your whole life that's fine but don't pretend you had no choice in the matter. If the power is a problem then move or work to fix it. If it isn't a problem then stop complaining about it. Moving isn't really difficult at all if you are motivated to do it. I've moved about every 5 years for the last 25 years and have lived in 4 different states. Not a big problem unless you make it one.
I have a generator, but it's for keeping the freezer running, fish tanks filtering, and not much else. If I wanted a car that required a gas engine to operate.. oh wait.
Oh stop moving the goalposts. You were talking specifically about a power outage. 99.9% of the time you'll never need to charge an electric car with a standby generator but it is an option if you need it. If there isn't a power outage (which is most of the time) then it isn't a problem. Buying an gas guzzling, polluting car for the 1 or 2 days a year the power goes out is just poor decision making. That's like buying a 24 foot box truck as your daily driver because you want to haul lumber twice a year. It doesn't make any sense.
unless every new power plant is wind, solar, or wave, there will be MORE emissions. just not where the tailpipe-sniffers are tailgating you.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Hey, if you choose to drive an electric car, that's on you.
Yes it is. Do you have an actual point to make?
I'll stick with a nice V8 myself.
And my Tesla will smoke your "nice V8". Enjoy your slow, noisy, smog machine.
When taxpayers stop spending $5.3 trillion a year to subsidize fossil fuels, I'll start to worry about renewable subsidies.
Good, then you can worry now, because we're not spending that money... You've been lied to, or you choose to believe a lie...
The IMF is a reputable organization.
http://www.imf.org/external/pu...
You, on the other hand, are just some random person on the internet.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
In absolute terms Volkswagen is outspending everyone else for research and development. And they have been high on the list for decades. I, for one, am hoping all that work finally pays off big.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
If you look at the link, about 1/3 of the USA number is 'Global warming', 1/3 is 'Local Air Pollution' and 1/3 is 'Other Vehicle Externalities'.
IMF is being used to distribute propaganda. Ham fisted and childishly unskilled propaganda. Where is the forth 1/3 for 'Endless war in middle east'? The fifth 1/3 for 'Think of the Children'?
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
If you're worried about your taxes, most of the dollars go to support endless war in the middle east. If we didn't "need" the oil, we wouldn't "need" the war.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
VW has a reputation for electrical problems dating back to their old 6V bugs. I've never owned a car with as many electrical issues as my 10yo Passat. All-electric should be good for the VW service departments at least.
The fact is, that numerous studies have said that grid AND energy is plenty IFF less than 15% of all vehicles charge in the high time (0900 - 2100). So, if decent range EVs are sold AND utilities will charge smart (drop the price of electricity in middle of the night, while charging more for daytime charges), then this will actually help utilities and lower ALL OF OUR RATES.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
No wonder Democrats get into office... So many low information idiots willing to vote for them...
Are you saying republican voters are so much better in these Trump days?
Firstly, the e-Golf has a 190km range (300km in 2017), while the Model 3 is said to have a range of 'at least' 346 km. The difference is not that big, even if Tesla can keep its promise on range. Secondly, while you can buy an e-Golf today, it is extremely unlikely that there will be any Model 3s delivered before the end of 2018, with most people who gave Tesla a $1000 interest-free loan not receiving one until well in 2019. Finally, the e-Golf is just an electric Golf, one of the best cars to drive, very practical, very reliable, comfortable and top marks in Euro NCAP, whereas there isn't even a final design for the Model 3 and Tesla's current cars aren't exactly great - they may offer cool features, but they are unreliable and the build quality is downright shoddy. Given how brand new €100 000+ Teslas leave the factory, I would be highly reluctant to buy something from them at less than a third of that price.
I wanted to buy a VW EV this year (e-Golf). I was told I wasn't allowed because I don't live in an affluent part of the country.
Fuck you, Volkswagen. I'll never buy any of your emission-cheating bullshit, now.
You are only allowed to buy an e-Golf in certain states and in certain affluent urban areas that are served by e-Golf-certified dealers. Furthermore many states will not allow you to import an e-Golf and obtain a title without at least one dealer in the state that can provide warranty service.
You seem to be the deluded one... It's amazing how someone clearly intelligent is so easily lied to. The subsidies are to encourage adoption. More adoption leads to lower prices. Lower prices and high adoption negate the need for subsidies, and so they are removed. This is nothing new or scary or misunderstood (well, apart from by you). This is how technology advances. I get it - your hobby is under threat, and that makes you scared and/or uneasy. It's OK that your hobby is a side-effect, a technical necessity because cars couldn't drive themselves from day one - just don't expect your passion for your hobby to be of any importance to the advance of technology. I'm sure people really loved riding horses around towns and cities, and they got upset when cars turned up. Your story is just the latest in a long chain of people complaining about technology that threatens to challenge their hobby's existence as they know it.
They screwed up Diesels, so are electric cars next?
You seem to be the deluded one...
Says the pot head...
You're the first person I hear saying Tesla makes subpar cars. Do you have any links to corroborate those claims?
Consumer Reports found that the Model S has "too many problems to recommend". Green Car Reports estimates that two-thirds of early Model S drivetrains will have to be replaced before 100000 km. While that may not necessarily be representive, of current production, the ongoing problems with the Model X are.
Since Tesla plans to ramp up production at an unprecedented rate in the coming years and Tesla's culture is much more focused on rapid change and pushing deadlines than on the engineering and long-term testing cycle the rest of the car industry works by, it will be very hard to improve this. Some analysts think that this will actually be their biggest problem while they are trying to gain foothold in the mass market.