Skip to main content

VW Expects EVs to Cost More Initially, Less Over Lifetime

The current path to sales for EVs is pretty clear. Make a luxury car, make it fast, charge a bunch of money for it, and you’ll do alright. At least, that’s how Tesla’s doing it.

The next frontier for electric vehicles, though, is volume sales. It’s not enough to prove that electric vehicles work for the upper crust, EVs have to prove that they work for regular people, too. Tesla is struggling slightly with that, failing to make enough Model 3s or enough money to really make a strong case for the EVs as a mainstream product.

Volkswagen, though, has a mighty industrial empire backing its attempt to make electric cars for the people, but even it believes that its electric cars will cost more than its combustion cars. Initially, at least.

The initial cost of ownership for the first generation of VW’s electric cars in America will be a little higher than comparable combustion cars, says Hinrich Woebcken, President of VW’s US operations. But VW is trying to make sure that the cost of ownership is low enough to make up for that.

“Demand on the volume side has a lot to do with [the customer’s] business case on cost of ownership [being] comparable to an internal combustion car. That’s what we are aiming for,” Woebcken told us at the New York International Auto Show.

In Europe, VW has promised that the I.D. line of cars will cost about as much as its diesel cars. Since VW’s commitment to EVs kind of came as a result of there being no more diesels in America, they can’t quite make that same promise here.

“Since we don’t have diesel here in the US market anymore we see a surcharge on cost of the vehicle, but then looking at total cost of ownership it has a certain trade offer,” he said. “That’s why we’re working on an offer for the customer that makes sense for the customer to really look at this as an alternative compared to a combustion engine car.”

Woebcken admits that this will be difficult for the first generation of cars since the investment has been so large and the market still so unsure, but he sees it as necessary.

“Only then, this technology, long term, has a volume opportunity,” he argues.

The post VW Expects EVs to Cost More Initially, Less Over Lifetime appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex https://ift.tt/2GCAdw1
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

Macau Gets Messy with 16-Car Pileup

The Macau Grand Prix is always good for an accident or two or 16— you may remember Audi’s race ending crash last year —and this year’s event didn’t disappoint. It didn’t take long for things to get messy on the tight road circuit. On the opening lap of the qualifying race a 16-car pileup caused the race to be suspended. Things kicked off when Daniel Juncadella hit a wall on the exit of Police bend, one of the tightest parts of the already tight circuit. The following car of Raffaele Marciello was able to avoid the carnage, but Laurens Vanthoor, who was in the upside-down Audi that ended the race last year, could not avoid Juncadella and together they blocked up the road pretty much completely. “I couldn’t see him [Juncadella] at first. Then I saw the car standing still,” Vanthoor told Motorsport. “I tried to brake but it was just understeering and I couldn’t do anything. There’s room for one car there and you’re blind.” Fourteen more cars would eventually crash into the corner c
Post a Comment
Read more

The First of its Kind: Integrated Engineering Releases Highly-Anticipated IE450T MK6 Golf R Turbo Kit

After two long years of development, the team at Integrated Engineering has finally announced the release of their IE450T kit for the MK6 Golf R. With their turbo kit bolted on right out of the box, the sport AWD hatch is transformed into a 450bhp monster, with hardly any noticeable increase in spool time. In fact, 435 ft-lbs of torque are achieved at all four wheels, at a mere 3300rpm! By now you are probably asking yourself how this is even possible on a 2.0L engine that made nearly half that power from the factory. By employing true twin-scroll technology into the cast turbo manifold and pairing it with a state-of-the-art BorgWarner EFR turbocharger, IE was able to keep spool time at a minimum and bring the fastest-spooling big turbo setup to the market. “We wanted to offer a kit that would dramatically increase the power output without making the car lose its amazing street-friendly drivability,” mentioned one of the IE engineers. We are told the IE450T leaves the car driving jus
Post a Comment
Read more