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Power Businesses The Almighty Buck Transportation

Volkswagen To Build Electric Versions of All 300 Models By 2030 (bloomberg.com) 168

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller announced sweeping plans to build electric versions of all 300 models in the group's lineup as the world's largest automaker accelerates the shift away from combustion engines and tries to draw a line under the emissions-cheating scandal. Speaking on the eve of the Frankfurt auto show, the CEO laid out the enormity of the task ahead, vowing to spend 20 billion euros ($24 billion) to develop and bring the models to market by 2030 and promising to plow another 50 billion euros into the batteries needed to power the cars. Volkswagen is throwing the fire power of its 12 brands behind the push, aiming to catch up with the likes of Tesla Inc. and transform from a battery-vehicle laggard into a leader. Underscoring the enormity of the shift taking place in the industry, Mueller said VW will need the equivalent of at least four gigafactories for battery cells by 2025 just to meet its own vehicle production. At 50 billion euros, the CEO announced one of the largest tenders in the industry's history for the procurement of batteries. By 2025, VW aims to have 50 purely battery-powered vehicles and 30 hybrid models in its lineup, with a goal of selling as many as 3 million purely battery-powered cars by then. The transformation will pick up speed after that to reach the 2030 goal as economies of scale and better infrastructure help bring down prices and accelerate sales.
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Volkswagen To Build Electric Versions of All 300 Models By 2030

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  • by Chris Katko ( 2923353 ) on Monday September 11, 2017 @07:12PM (#55177917)

    ...but by 2040 we're going to find out those plumes of black smoke coming out of the electric cars weren't actually delicious all-nature chocolate powder.

    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      they hint they might also have a cold fusion convertible model. Zero emissions.

    • what we do however already know is that even if all cars in a dense city would be electric, it'd still be too polluting as a significant part of the polluting particles in the air are from the tires of the cars...
      who's going to invent us some clean tires? :)

      • by shilly ( 142940 )

        EVs address two of three significant sources of particulates from automobiles:
        1. Tailpipe -- cut to zero either by displacement to power stations or complete removal through use of renewables
        2. Brakes -- cut substantially due to use of regenerative braking
        3. Tires -- still an issue

        Two out of three is better than none out of three. And yes, we need cleaner tires. But I still look forward to the day when that is the only remaining problem to address

  • Make a lot of Chevy Volt-type cars, minimum all-electric range of 50 miles EPA & a turbocharged 2-liter engine engine.
    BMW gets 230 HP out of a B38 3-cyl 1.5 L.
    Use the electric motor to power the rear wheels; should make for a car that's fun to drive at legal speeds.

  • Bugatti holds various records for the fastest cars on the road. I cant wait to see how bonkers fast the Bugatti EV (whatever they come up with) ends up being.

    • by Rei ( 128717 )

      Tesla is in a close battle with Bugatti on accelerations. The Bugatti Veyron did 0-60 in 2,4 seconds. The Tesla P100D does it in 2,27 seconds. The Chiron now does it in 2,0 seconds. Etc. I can't see how electric isn't ultimately going to win this battle. The Teslas also cost 1 1/2 orders of magnitude less, and while they lose out on high-end acceleration, they clobber anything on the road off the line.

      One thing Teslas don't do yet is that they're not track cars; they don't have the cooling level needed for

    • Considering the Italian location, I would call it: Bugatti Electra.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      (Yes, I know the difference between Greek and Latin :D )
      However the name giver would be this Electra: http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/Ny... [theoi.com]

  • These long term plans make me laugh out loud!
    It looks like "someone else's problem/project".
    Or just investors' bait.
    Tesla will bury them all.

    • Considering that Germany once was the top notch researchers in electric cars (and Daimler is still dreaming about hydrogen powered fuel cell EV cars), it is a shame how the car industry here developed.

  • An interesting article, to be sure, but WHAT THE HELL just happened to Slashdot? I just refreshed this page and Slashdot disappeared, and I instead got some mobile version of Beta on steroids. On a desktop.

  • They're giving themselves plenty of time on diesel and petrol, although I guess we'll see more 'stop the engine at the lights' in the near future.

    From TFA, "By 2025, VW aims to have 50 purely battery-powered vehicles and 30 hybrid models in its lineup, with a goal of selling as many as 3 million all-electric cars by then."

    'hybrid' can mean 'stop the engine at the lights', or it can mean something more like a Prius. There are a lot of years between then and now, so there's plenty of time for Nissan to beef u

    • 'hybrid' can mean 'stop the engine at the lights'
      That is not what hybrid means.
      And for your interest: all modern cars automatically stop the engine when you stop.

      • The UK government recently stated that the sale of all non-hybrid cars would be stopped after 2040. During the ensuing news round-up and debate, it transpired that using a bit of battery to save the fuel while idling (ie. 'stop at the lights, but restart the engine to pull away') could be considered 'hybrid' in so much as it's not 100% hydrocarbon and using electrical power to fill the 'gaps'. It turns out that the industry calls this "micro hybrid", and indeed there are numerous varieties of implementation

        • If it has no electric engine to drive the car, it is not a hybrid.

          Obviously you found the name "micro hybrid" yourself. However I would hope people would slap the car manufactures on their wrist to coin such misnomers.

          • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] commonly referred to as a micro hybrid. The car needs to use electric power for certain things which would normally run via serpentine belt while the engine is off. So it is using electricity instead of gasoline, just not for propulsion.
    • by fnj ( 64210 )

      'hybrid' can mean 'stop the engine at the lights'

      No it can't. That's not a hybrid, idiot. That's a simple start-stop engine. Sheesh.

  • I am not sure I would want an EV if I was in FL at the moment. Given the grid is toast, exactly where does one fillup? Its not like you could truck in spare batteries to change out. And those long lines to fillup. Given it take a few minutes to fill a tank vs an hour or more to charge an EV, can you imagine the lines at the charge stations before the hurricane hit? ICE engines/tech has been around for a very long time and we know how to handle problem times, extreme cold, extreme heat conditions. How long b

    • by Rei ( 128717 )

      After Harvey, only one Supercharger station was noticed to have gone out, and only for a brief timeperiod. Superchargers survived serious damage to the buildings they were attached to - for example, one had a gaping hole in the hotel it was attached to, while another's adjacent building had the floor flooded with water.

      Irma was different - probably the single greatest power loss incident in US history. Ten million customers were left without power, and in certain parts of the state, virtually everyone. Th

  • that's about 200 models too many. 200 brand managers and staffs, 200 ad hierarchies, 200 sets of designers and dealerships and headaches too many. use those 12 brands to differentiate types of vehicles, put birds of a feather on the same lot. I bet the savings would just about pay the fines for those illegal stinkpots they pushed the past 8 years.

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards. -- Aldous Huxley

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