2008 Komfort Used Turbo 2l I4 16v Automatic Fwd Sedan Premium on 2040-cars

Auto blog

VW ready to spend $25B on at least 6 EVs in China by 2018

Standing next to the lovely GTE plug-in hybrid during the Beijing Motor Show, VW CEO Martin Winterkorn announced a renewed, $25-billion focus for the German automaker on electric mobility in China. EVs + China is not a new equation for VW (see here and here and here), but the time is now for the plan to come together, apparently. As Winterkorn said in a statement (available below), "We are launching the biggest initiative for e-mobility in China's automotive history." "We are launching the biggest initiative for e-mobility in China's automotive history" – Martin Winterkorn With the Porsche Panamera S E-hybrid already in showrooms, the next tip of the spear is made up of the all-electric e-up! and e-Golf, both of which are due later this year. In 2015, the Audi A3 e-tron and Golf GTE will arrive. In 2016, there will be two exclusive-to-China plug-in hybrid vehicles in showrooms: a A6 PHEV and a "new mid-size limousine from the Volkswagen brand." VW Group may even throw in the Bentley Hybrid Concept for good measure. The China-only models will be built in the country and VW is investing over $25 billion between now and 2018, creating an expected 20,000 jobs. VOLKSWAGEN GROUP STARTS ELECTRO-MOBILITY CAMPAIGN IN CHINA CEO Prof. Dr. Winterkorn: "We are launching the biggest initiative for e-mobility in China's automotive history." Campaign gets underway with electric up!1 and e-Golf2 Over ˆ18 billion to be spent on new vehicles, technologies and plants up to 2018 Over 500,000 employees at more than 3,600 dealerships in 2018 Vehicle deliveries in China targeted to top 3.5 million for first time in 2014 Wolfsburg / Beijing, April 22, 2014: "The Volkswagen Group is once again assuming a pioneering role in China and launching the biggest initiative for e-mobility in China's automotive history," Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, announced at the Auto China motor show in Beijing. The initiative gets underway with the launch this year of the Volkswagen brand's electric up!1 and e-Golf2 models. While the Porsche Panamera S E-hybrid3 is already in the showrooms in China, the Group will be launching two further innovative plug-in hybrid vehicles there next year with the Audi A3 e-tron4 and the Golf GTE5.

BMW, VW partner with ChargePoint for high-speed charging network

To promote their plug-in electric vehicles, a number of electric vehicle makers are working overtime to get a charging infrastructure set up. Tesla is famously setting up a network of Superchargers around the world, and today BMW and VW have announced they are partnering with ChargePoint to install almost 100 DC Fast Chargers up and down the US coasts. Installing additional Level 2 chargers is also part of the plan. The new DC Fast Chargers will offer the SAE Combo connectors, which is available on both the e-Golf and the i3. The fast chargers will have "up to two 50 kW DC Fast chargers, or 24 kW DC Combo Fast chargers," BMW says. They will be installed roughly 50 miles apart between Boston and Washington, DC in the east as well as Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego in the west. The 24-kW DC Fast Chargers will fill up an empty i3 or e-Golf to 80 percent in a half-hour or 3.5-4 hours from the Level 2 cords. Speaking at an announcement ceremony at the Washington Auto Show today, ChargePoint CEO Pasquale Romano said that infrastructure investments like this will get more people to realize that they can use an electric vehicle as their only car, and Jorg Sommer, VP of product marketing and strategy for VW North America, said that it's clear that, "The EV is perfect for the daily driver." BMW, Volkswagen and ChargePoint Join Forces to Create Electric Vehicle Express Charging Corridors on the East and West Coasts. · A goal of nearly 100 DC Fast charging ports will be installed to support long distance and metropolitan electric vehicle travel with the BMW i3, Volkswagen e-Golf and other electric cars, along heavily trafficked corridors on both coasts, supported by Level 2 chargers. · These publicly available charging stations will be added to the existing ChargePoint network and can be easily accessed using a ChargePoint® or ChargeNow card. Washington, D.C., January 22, 2015 – At the 2015 Washington Auto Show, two of the top automakers, BMW of North America and Volkswagen of America, together with ChargePoint, the largest electric vehicle charging network, announced an initiative to create express charging corridors along heavily-traveled routes on the East and West Coasts.

The Volkswagen Group switches official language to English

The Volkswagen Group can't be fairly thought of as entirely German anymore, so the news that the company is switching its official language to English to help attract managers and executives is a rational, if surprising, decision. While many VW Group companies are still staidly German in character and culture, consider the other companies that it controls: Bentley (British), Bugatti (French), Ducati and Lamborghini (Italian), Skoda (Czech), Scania trucks (Swedish), and SEAT (Spanish). Not to mention the large Volkswagen Group of America operation, which constructs cars in Chattanooga, TN. Volkswagen's explicit motivation is to improve management recruitment – making sure the company isn't losing out on candidates for important positions because they can't speak German – and that's inherently sensible in a globalized economy. Particularly considering, like it or lump it, that English is the lingua franca of said global economy. It also should make it inherently easier to communicate between its world-wide subsidiaries and coordinate operations. It's hard to say for sure if this will have any impact on the consumer, although it's easy to see the benefits if, say, VW Group hires some American product planners or engineers and they push for features and designs that more closely suit American needs. After all, the US is a hugely important market for any manufacturer, and so the switch to English almost certainly has something to do with the outsized influence of the US in the global economy. And there doesn't seem to be a downside from a purely rational perspective, although it could mean that the Group's corporate culture becomes less German. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on your perspective. Related Video: Image Credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images Plants/Manufacturing Audi Bentley Bugatti Porsche Volkswagen SEAT Skoda