Volkswagen To Explore New Design For Its Electric Vehicles

The future generation of all-electric vehicles from VW will have a new design language that hasn’t been seen on any of the automaker’s cars.

With the introduction of its new family of all-electric vehicles, Volkswagen will be taking a fresh approach, reports Automotive News. The automaker’s head of design, Klaus Bischoff, said using battery packs allows VW to change the shape of its upcoming cars. According to the report, the cars will have shorter hoods, longer wheelbases, short overhangs, larger passenger compartments, more-raked windshields, and be taller.

While the I.D. family of cars will showcase VW’s new design language, the electric cars also pose challenges for the automaker’s designers. Electric vehicles, as the report points out, are usually taller than their gasoline-powered counterparts to accommodate for power cells that are mounted on the bottom of the car.

“To cope with that we need to correct proportions,” said Bischoff in Detroit earlier this month. “Essential for this huge wheels, huge in diameter – but also wide.”

The correct proportions also include a small hood, which is due to the disappearance of the engine compartment, causing the A-pillar to shift forward. VW’s designers will now be able to drastically reduce the size of the hood and will use the piece to only meet crash regulations.

Range is another aspect that VW is looking to improve upon with its new designs. By utilizing a smaller hood, the automaker can use a windshield that is inclined at a steeper angle for better fluid dynamics, said Bischoff.

“To gain the travel distance – range is essential – we need to have outstanding drag coefficients, and this will also influence the shape of the cars quite a bit,” Bischoff said.

No overhangs will help VW increase the cars’ wheelbase, giving passengers more room on the inside. The report claims that the automaker’s designers have pushed the dashboard forward by five inches for even more legroom. “The I.D. has the interior space of a Passat [midsize] with a footprint smaller than the Golf,” said Bischoff.

While the design of the I.D. family sounds like a step in the right direction to have a unique vehicle that stands out on the road, Bischoff hinted towards taking a page out of Tesla’s book by doing away with the grille.

VW’s modern design will appear on the automaker’s first car in its new family of battery-electric vehicles with production set to start in 2020.

[source: Automotive News]

This article was first generated on hybridcars.com

The post Volkswagen To Explore New Design For Its Electric Vehicles appeared first on VWVortex.

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