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VW issues orders for police version of e-Golf

If the Toyota Prius could be used (in fiction, anyway) as a quiet way to do a drive-by shooting, then a pure electric vehicle should have some silent benefits for the police. It's happening in the real world thanks to the new police-spec VW e-Golf. On display at an international police equipment conference in Germany this week (the Internationalen Fachmesse fur Polizeiausrustung), the 5-0-ready EV has a special paint job as well as the required top lights and digital communications gear. VW says the special e-Golf also stands ready to serve the mission of emissions reduction. The powertrain is the same as what you'll find in the civilian e-Golf, which means an 85-kW electric motor that can zip up to 62 miles per hour in 10.4 seconds and a li-ion battery that provides something between 80 and 118 miles of range. We imagine using this little car for a high-speed car chase will shrink that down a bit. Volkswagen Konzern prasentiert Fahrzeuge mit Spezialausstattung auf Polizei-Fachmesse Internationale Premiere: Der e-Golf* als Polizei-Einsatzfahrzeug Der Volkswagen Konzern prasentiert eine breite Palette seiner Fahrzeugmodelle mit speziellen Polizei-Sonderausstattungen auf der 8. Internationalen Fachmesse fur Polizeiausrustung. Vertreten sind die Marken Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, SKODA und Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge. Die Volkswagen Leasing GmbH komplettiert als Finanzdienstleister den Konzernauftritt. Die Fachmesse findet vom 9. bis 11. September 2014 auf dem Messegelande in Leipzig statt. Als Messehighlight wird der e-Golf als Polizeieinsatzfahrzeug prasentiert. Damit verfolgt Volkswagen auch in diesem speziellen Fahrzeugsegment das Ziel der Schadstoffreduktion. Die Ausstattung umfasst neben der Sondersignalanlage unter anderem Digitalfunk und das klassische Erscheinungsbild in typisch blauer Beklebung. Ausgestellt werden weiterhin ein Golf Variant, ein T5 und ein Audi Q5 als Funkstreifenwagen sowie ein SKODA Octavia Kombi RS und ein SEAT Leon FR in der zivilen Variante. Fachbesucher finden den Volkswagen Messestand in der Halle 1, Stand H02. Der e-Golf uberzeugt mit einem wegweisend niedrigen Verbrauch von 12,7 kWh/100 km. Der Elektromotor leistet 85 kW/115 PS und entwickelt aus dem Stand maximal 270 Nm Drehmoment. In 4,2 Sekunden werden 60 km/h erreicht, nach 10,4 Sekunden 100 km/h. Die Reichweite liegt je nach Streckenprofil, Fahrweise, Einsatz von Komfort- und Nebenverbrauchern sowie Zuladung zwischen 130 und 190 Kilometern.

Recharge Wrap-up: Toyota Prius airbag recall, Peugeot launches eU01s e-bike

Toyota is recalling 7,600 Prius vehicles for an airbag issue. Certain examples of the 2016 Prius could have malfunctioning inflators that could cause the passenger side airbags to deploy accidentally. There are no known injuries from the faulty airbags, but Toyota says, "This has been observed when the vehicle is parked and unoccupied for a period of time." Toyota also says this issue is unrelated to the massive recall of airbags supplied by Takata. The automaker will contact affected owners to arrange free repairs. Read more at Automotive News. Peugeot is adding another e-bike to its portfolio with the eU01s. What sets this electrically assisted bicycle apart from both regular bikes and other pedelecs is its ability to propel the bike to 28 mph under electric power. It comes with either a 400- or 500-Wh lithium-ion battery, providing 47 or 59 miles of range, respectively. It also offers an optional on-board computer with its 4.3-inch screen, through which riders can customize the electric assistance, get directions, receive sports coaching, and connect their smartphone. Earlier this year, Peugeot also launched its e-Kick scooter and folding eF01 e-bike. Read more at Green Car Congress. BYD is expanding its manufacturing facility in the US. In the second of three phases for the plant, BYD is adding onto its factory in Lancaster, California, where it currently builds electric buses. The Chinese company plans to triple the number of employees, up from the current 400, as it expands the facility by 40,000 square feet. BYD plans to build medium- and heavy-duty trucks at the plant, but declined to comment on whether it has plans to build light-duty vehicles there. Read more at Automotive News. The German states of Hesse and Baden-Wuerttemberg are suing Volkswagen over the Dieselgate scandal. The states are joining other investors seeking damages over losses incurred because of the automaker's emissions cheat device. Hesse Finance Minister Thomas Schaefer said the scandal cost the state about $4.4 million in stock losses, while Baden-Wuerttemberg likely lost closer to $450,000. Bavaria said earlier that it would sue Volkswagen on behalf of its pension fund for civil servants, which lost around $780,000. Read more from Automotive News Europe.

The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.