1981 Volkswagan Rabbit Diesel Pick-up Truck Caddy on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: unofficial Tesla ad, VW will produce Budd-e

An unofficial Tesla commercial pays homage to the automaker's namesake. The video, which shows the Model S driving through a dusty, petroleum-addicted landscape reminiscent of a Mad Max film, features words from a speech by electricity-obsessed inventor Nikola Tesla. While Tesla (the man) talks about advancing technology into the future through electricity, the cars surroundings switch from the barren oil village to a green countryside dotted with wind turbines. See the video above, and read more at Treehugger. Famous rapper Akon is a Tesla fan who wants to power Africa with solar energy. Akon, who once boasted a collection of 28 exotic cars, traded them in for four Teslas, including a Model X. Also, his organization Akon Lighting Africa provides free solar electricity and lighting to communities that need it. Clean Technica talked to Akon about solar power, Tesla and EVs in a video. See the video and read more at Clean Technica, and get more perspective from Teslarati. The Volkswagen BUDD-e EV may be moving to production. The electric vehicle, built on the MEB modular platform with looks borrowed from the Microbus, made its debut as a concept vehicle at CES this year. Volkwagen's Dr. Volkmar Tanneberger tells Car magazine, "You will see a car that looks a lot like this, on the MEB platform, reach production. I can't say exactly when, but 2020 or thereabouts." He also says that the California camper van and Transporter van will continue production with internal combustion engines. Read more from Car. The 2017 Kia Soul EV will have more range. While it is scheduled for some minor updates, upping the electric Soul's driving range from its current EPA rating of 93 miles will hopefully attract more customers than a simple facelift. Autocar spied the next Soul EV testing in some heavy camouflage, but it offered no other details about the range beyond its reported expansion. Read more from Plugin Cars.

Volkswagen to 'refit' 11 million diesel vehicles [UPDATE]

UPDATE: This post has been updated with an official comment from Volkswagen of America. In response to its devastating diesel-emissions scandal, Volkswagen will ask some 11 million of its customers to report into dealerships to have their diesel-powered vehicles "refitted," Reuters is reporting. According to new CEO Matthais Muller, customers will be asked to report in "in the next few days" for the refit, although it's not entirely clear exactly what the 'refit' entails. Mueller apparently made the announcement during a closed-door meeting with 1,000 of the German company's top managers, although he didn't explain exactly how the emissions-cheating software would be sorted out, or what impact it would have on the performance of mileage of the company's diesel-powered products. It's expected that the refit work will cost VW $6.5 billion, Reuters claims. "We are facing a long trudge and a lot of hard work," Muller allegedly said. "We will only be able to make progress in steps and there will be setbacks." Autoblog reached out to Volkswagen of America to see when American consumers would be asked to report to dealers, what the refit involves, how long it's expected to take to repair all the cars in the US and globally, and what impact this fix will have on the performance and fuel economy of its diesel-powered cars and SUVs. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, VWoA wasn't too forthcoming. "We don't comment on media speculation on internal meetings," Volkswagen of America spokesman Mark Gillies told Autoblog, adding, "We don't have any information on what the remedy might be at the moment, but we are working on it as a matter of the utmost urgency."

Audi RS3 and Volkswagen Golf R face off in Evo test

Typically when an automotive publication pits two rivals against each other, they come from different companies. After all, why would one automaker – even one parent company – develop two distinct models to compete against each other? Well, the Volkswagen Group isn't like most. It pits Porsches against Lamborghinis, Audis against Bentleys, Seats against Skodas... all under the same roof. In the high-powered hot hatch market, it offers both the VW Golf R and the Audi RS3. The question is, which is the better drive? Evo put them both on track for a quick bout of sibling rivalry to find out. On paper it would seem like an unfair fight. Sure, both are based on the same platform and channel their power to the tarmac through all four wheels. But the Audi's five-cylinder engine packs considerably more muscle than the Golf's four: 362 horsepower and 343 pound-feet of torque trump 296 hp and 280 lb-ft. There's just no way around that – at least until the Golf R 400 comes along. The Audi, as you might have guessed, also costs substantially more than the Volkswagen. But that's not Evo's concern here. This is a cost-no-object, bare-knuckle throw-down. Watch the ten-minute video above to find out if the cheaper, less powerful Golf R can keep pace with its more upscale and brawnier brother. Related Video: News Source: Evo via YouTube Audi Volkswagen Hatchback Performance Videos vw golf r evo