Skip to main content

Volkswagen Has a Low-priced EV Plan to Keep Rivals At Bay: Report

Volkswagen doesn’t want competitors usurping its electric car efforts, so there’s a plan afoot to give buyers what they want at a much lower price, sources claim. Two reports, citing those with knowledge of a strategy not yet approved by the automaker’s supervisory board, state the company plans to go cheaper than its upcoming line of I.D.-badged EVs.

How cheap, you ask? How about $21,000?

That’s the price stated by Bloomberg in its late-Thursday report, with sources claiming the vehicle — a subcompact crossover — would enter production in 2020, likely at VW’s Emden, Germany assembly plant. Production would total 200,000 vehicles per year.

VW’s first MEB-platform electric vehicle called the I.D. Neo (seen above), is also headed for a 2020 production start date, with the company claiming the hatchback will start around $26,000. Slotting a new, cheaper vehicle below that would help cover VW Group’s bases. While the report cites Tesla as a main competitor, the yet-undelivered base Model 3 carries a price of $35,000 in the U.S. and wouldn’t be any less costly in Europe. With this entry-level EV, VW would be guarding its back door against the likes of Renault and other affordable, mainstream automakers.

A report in Reuters states pretty much the same thing, with a source saying the new vehicle would cost less than 20,000 euros (or less than $22,836). All of this is designed to protect VW’s massive domestic workforce from dastardly, diesel-hating lawmakers and cunning automotive rivals. VW is expected to lay out the plan at a Nov. 16 strategy meeting.

With VW’s product horizon filling up with EVs, plant capacity becomes a problem. While the automaker still makes internal combustion cars and light trucks, not all of those models need to be produced in Germany. Production of VW’s Transporter van could make its way to a Ford plant in Turkey, a source claimed. Ah, the Ford connection rears its head again.

A slew of reports in recent days suggest the VW-Ford partnership could take a number of forms, and it’s not out of the question that VW would grant its American counterpart access to its MEB electric architecture. In addition to a light commercial vehicle pair-up, the German automaker also seems interested in the Ford Ranger platform.

a version of this article first appeared on thetruthaboutcars.com

The post Volkswagen Has a Low-priced EV Plan to Keep Rivals At Bay: Report appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex https://ift.tt/2OudykF
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