VW Cuts Back On EV Production, Citing Poor Sales

[Auto Styling News]

Volkswagen is temporarily cutting back production of e-cars at its Emden plant in the German seaport town of Lower Saxony, citing flagging sales, according to the works council. In the next two weeks until the plant vacations, the late shift in the production of the ID.4 compact SUV and the first models of the new ID.7 electric sedan will be canceled, works council head Manfred Wulff said in response to a question, confirming a report in the "Nordwest-Zeitung" newspaper. 

A VW spokeswoman in Emden told the paper, "We are confident that capacity utilization at the plant will increase again with the market launch of the ID.7 at the end of the year."

The workforce was informed of the move on Monday, the works council said. According to the statement, while production of combustion models, such as the Passat, will continue unchanged, the three-week plant vacation for employees in the E-segment is also to be extended by one week. In addition, around 300 of the 1,500 temporary workers currently employed in Emden are not to be kept on from August.

For the past decade, The German automaker has been promising an electric version of its wildly popular VW Van. But its success was pinned to the nostalgia of Baby Boomers (1946-1964) who remembered the original. The oldest cohort of the group is in their 70s now, and are unlikely to be buying "family vans."

In February, VW booted it's design chief, who was a proponent of "retro" designs.
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Auto Styling News is a blog that covers car concepts, newly released models, and the auto industry.

#VW's ID CROZZ #Concept Is An Autonomous Electric Slated For 2026 [Auto Styling News]

Volkswagen's I.D. CROZZ concept offers a fashionable sneak peek of the future, and that future is electric, autonomously driven crossover. And it may be in driveways by early 2026.

The concept's sleek, four-door coupe shape has a similar footprint to the new 2018 Tiguan, with dramatic doors that open 90 degrees in the front and slide back in the rear to reveal a cavernous interior. On the outside, the I.D. CROZZ greets passengers with a light show, with lighted VW logos and daytime running lights that “awaken” like eyes.

Personally, I'm not even a fan of the many, many vehicles already on the road that "blink" by turning out the headlamp when the turn signal is engaged. But I'm sure this silliness will either be long gone by 2026, or will be so ubiquitous that we don't even notice anymore.

The exterior is quite handsome, and is a bit of a step up from today's rather bland VWs. The sliding rear doors are just plain silly, and likely won't make it to production, but are less silly than ones seen on many other concepts, or current minivans. Not sure they want to emulate minivans, but it's entirely possible they show up on the final version.

The I.D. CROZZ resembles, especially from a side view, the Toyota Prius Prime, which isn't a bad vehicle design to emulate.

The production car, says VW, will feature the company's I.D. Pilot self-driving system concept. That means that in self-driving mode, the steering wheel of the I.D. CROZZ will (rather horrifyingly) retract into the dash, and the interior lights will change color. Drivers can summon the I.D. Pilot by simple voice controls, and the concept system is designed to rely on four laser scanners that pop up from the roof of the I.D. CROZZ, as well as ultrasonic sensors, radar sensors, side area view cameras and a front camera.

VW estimates that the car's battery pack will be able to be recharged up to 80 percent in 30 minutes when using a 150-kWh fast charger. The company's EV plans are among the most ambitious in the industry, and call for launching next-generation electric vehicles on three continents - Europe, Asia and North America - anticipated to begin in 2020.

#VW Teases "Revolutionary" Electric Vehicle By 2020 [Auto Styling News]

At next month's Paris Motor Show, Volkswagen - seeking to turn the page on its scandalous gaming of emissions standards - will urge us to "Think New." And the concept car it recently teased ahead of the show is actually something pretty good, if may live up to the hype, if it makes it off the drawing board.

Volkswagen says the concept electric vehicle it will launch by 2020 will be based on it's "modular electric toolkit" (MEB in German) the basis of battery-electric vehicles with ranges of  249 to 373 miles. Several vehicles up and down the product line will apparently benefit from this new technology, including a beefed up electric car with greater range before 2020 (the current one gets a mere 83 miles out of a full charge.) By 2025, VW hopes to be selling between 2 million and 3 million electric vehicles every year.

This one-of-a-kind concept car, says VW, signals the brand’s entry into a new era, as revolutionary, it claims, "as the Beetle was seven decades ago, before it evolved into the world’s best-selling car of the last century." This car, too, they claim, "has the potential to make history with its completely new vehicle concept."

All well and good. The car, which we have only seen teased in the photos here, sure looks nice. The headlamps and tail lamps alone look revolutionary. And even if it had a regular gasoline engine in it, it looks like a winner (assuming, of course, consumers forgive them by 2020 for lying about earlier models' emissions!) But a note of caution here: VW, not unlike GM, Toyota and many other brands, have a history of teasing big changes and gorgeous concepts, only to have bean-counters ratchet down the beauty in the production phase.

One hopes they not only ARE able to deliver on these astounding range figures, but that the vehicles continue to evolve into something beautiful, like these indicate they will most certainly will be.

#VW Teams Up With LG To Create "Connected" Cars [Auto Styling News]

Today's marriages of tech companies and car companies continues, and is likely to give birth to amazing technological advances in the next decade.

The Volkswagen Group and LG Electronics are the latest to team up. Earlier this month in Wolfsburg, Germany, both signed a memorandum of understanding on the joint research and development of a next-generation connected car service platform.

The two companies have pledged to work together on Volkswagen's Cross-Over-Platform, which is aimed at enhanced vehicle connectivity and convenience. Using the latest in cloud technology, it will offer drivers seamless digital access to extensive features such as smart home and location-based services.

Vehicles like the VW zero-emission BUDD-e electric van concept (at left) imagined as a 2019 vehicle, will likely benefit from this alliance.

Another beneficiary will be concepts like the GEA, unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 2015. It was already a collaboration between LG Electronics and VW, having seven key components supplied by LG, including the holographic display, connected smart watch, tail lights and rear camera. In July, LG was selected as Volkswagen's strategic electronics supplier and also listed as a partner company on its FAST (Future Automotive Supply Tracks) program. At CES earlier this year, the two companies attracted great attention showcasing a smart home system that could be controlled remotely from the vehicle.

Over the coming years, the two companies say they will be concentrating on:
• Developing technologies that bring together the connected car and the smart home
   so that drivers are able to control and monitor smart devices in their homes —
   such as lights, security systems and domestic appliances — from out on the road.
• Developing a context-sensitive notification center that can deliver messages in an
   intuitive and safe manner and provide optimized recommendations to the driver in
   real time.
• Developing next-generation infotainment technology for connected cars.

LG was one of the first electronics companies to commit itself to the automotive industry. It has been supplying audio-visual products for vehicles since 2007, establishing a reputation for reliability and technological innovation.