Volkswagen
VW Works to Preserve Civil Rights Legacy of Esau and Janie B. Jenkins
You may not know the story of Esau and Janie B. Jenkins. Being honest, I didn’t know that much about it before I started working on this article. The Jenkins’ were natives of South Carolina who were frustrated by the lack of opportunities and equal rights in their community, he bused his children and others to public schools in Charleston. Along the way, he started teaching his passengers to recite parts of the state constitution, one of the requirements for becoming registered voters in the 1940s, when only a few thousand African-American residents across South Carolina could vote, due to racial literacy exams. Those bus trips were just the start of a larger legacy, however. One that grew to include the 1966 VW Type 2 Bus you see here. Well, most of the 1966 VW Type 2 Bus, any...
Volkswagen ID.R Smashes Tianmen Mountain Record
“China Challenge” mastered – Volkswagen’s fully-electric prototype sets new benchmark on Tianmen Mountain Romain Dumas conquers the 99 hairpins on the 10.906-kilometre “Big Gate Road” in less than 8 minutes ID.R is the sportiest representative of the electric ID. family of products Another day, another motorsports speed record taken down by the all-electric Volkswagen ID.R and French driver Romain Dumas. And, believe me, I know that the story is starting to feel a little bit repetitive– but you haven’t taken a look at the scenery for this one. This particular record fell at Tianmen Mountain pass in China– a place that’s also been called “Heaven’s Gate“. “With the record set on the dramatic Tianmen road, we have mastered another challenge in o...
Forbidden Fruit: 5 Great EVs You Can’t Buy in the US
Enrg.io is largely based in the United States. As such, we have access to some of the best electric cars in the world from Tesla, Nissan, and others– but we don’t have access to ALL of the awesome electric cars out there. Markets like China, Russia, and Europe get cars we probably won’t see here for years– if at all! That fact– and the fact that we all want things that we can’t have!– inspired us to put together a quick list of “forbidden fruit”. So, here they are: 5 Great EVs You Can’t Buy in the US. Enjoy! Volkswagen e-Up The Volkswagen e-Up! (yes, the “!” is part of the name) is all-new for 2019, and it is everything you’d expect in a modern electric hot hatch that was built by the people who invented t...
VW to Test Self-Charging Autonomous EVs
As first reported by The Verge, Volkswagen will be teaming up with Stable Auto, a California startup, to test self-charging autonomous all-electric vehicles (EV’s). The effort will be conducted under VW’s Electrify America project, an undertaking we mentioned earlier here. The goal of the project is to develop fast-charging stations where self-driving EVs can pull-up and attach to a robotic arm with a 150kW DC charger. The first test site will be built in San Francisco and is scheduled to open in 2020. In a prepared statement, Electrify America’s Director of Infrastructure Planning and Business Development Wayne Killen said: “We believe that reliable, high power electric vehicle charging infrastructure is essential for the accelerated adoption of EVs in the U.S., and reco...
Bentley Honey, a New Play on the New Flying B
Bentley is owned by Volkswagen. And– as Volkswagen is “turning over a new leaf” by putting a heavy emphasis on electrification, carbon neutral manufacturing, and corporate responsibility– so, too, must its children captive brands Audi, Porsche, and Bentley. The latest bid to move Bentley into a “greener” space doesn’t have much to do with cars, though. Instead, it’s about bees. No, not the iconic “Flying B” hood ornament. Like, bee bees. “We already have the largest solar car port in the UK on our site, which means that all of our electricity use is now either solar or certified green,” explains Mr. Peter Bosch, Bentley’s Member of the Board for Manufacturing. “So we’ve also started to look at ways we can use our...
Ex Audi CEO Gets Criminally Charged for Diesel Cheat
Criminal charges were officially filed against former Audi CEO, Rupert Stadler, earlier today, for his role in the 2015 Volkswagen-Audi emissions cheating scandal that’s become known as “Dieselgate”. The public prosecutor’s office in Munich revealed that Stadler, along with three other defendants, are being formally charged with false certification and criminal advertising practices. Collectively, they are accused of having developed power trains used by Audi, Volkswagen, and Porsche branded cars that were equipped emissions-cheating devices. The charges ultimately come down to “What did Stadler know, and when did he know it?” if I’m reading them correctly. “Defendant Stadler is accused of having been aware of the manipulations since the end ...
Volkswagen Introduces New Line of E-Scooters
The Volkswagen Group is jumping into the e-scooter game. In an announcement on the company’s website earlier this month, Volkswagen delivered details on its plan to improve “micromobility” within cities. These new products are a direct response from Volkswagen to a trend in unprecedented urbanization seen in recent years. “In 1950 not even every third person lived in the city, today it is more than half of the world’ s population – and the trend is rising. The megatrend urbanization also has consequences for the mobility sector. The number of city dwellers is accompanied by an increase in the number of vehicles in the metropolises and thus in the capacity utilization of the roads. Answers are needed to avoid the threat of traffic collapse on the one hand...
Ford Will Use VW Tech to Build its Electric Cars
Ford may be pushing hard to develop electric cars for China, but its efforts to bring electric cars to its traditional markets in the US and Europe have, arguably, been falling behind for years. Now however, the company is hoping to leverage its blossoming relationship with German industrial giant, Volkswagen, to develop new electric cars like, now– and VW seems into it! One of the biggest challenges that both Ford and VW face in getting more consumers to buy electric cars is to bring prices down to make the cars price competitive without big tax credits. Executives from both companies said that boosting economies of scale by sharing the Volkswagen-developed MEB platform is the best way to do that. “We will see more collaboration [on electric cars] because the timing is not cle...
SEC Defends Defends Diesel Emissions Cheating Case Against VW
Back in March, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against VW and its former CEO, Martin Winterkorn, for defrauding U.S. investors by raising billions of dollars through the corporate bond and fixed income markets while making a series of knowingly deceptive claims about the environmental impact of the company’s so-called “clean diesel” vehicle offerings. Now, the government body is under fire from judges who are questioning the timing of the case against VW. “My basic question is what took you so long,” said US District Judge Charles Breyer, when he questioned the SEC’s “lateness” in suing VW more than two years after the German automaker settled the US Justice Department’s criminal probe. He added that he was &#...
VW Type 20 Concept Highlights 20 Years of Innovation
Get Plugged In In a hurry? Here are the major points in this post. Electric Microbus Concept Marries Old and New Technology VW is Renaming and Re-tasking its Technology Center VW Likes 3D Printing VW is pushing hard to make conversations about the company’s products less about diesel emissions scandals and more about innovative engineering and forward-looking electrics. To help make that happen, they’ve renamed their Electronics Research Lab, now calling it the Innovation and Engineering Center, California (IECC). The IECC will be tasked with “lighthouse projects” for the German carmaker, which include connected car, intelligent cockpit, and autonomous driving programs. Innovative stuff– and they’ve decided to showcase that innovation in the car you see ...
VW Says “Carbon Neutral” is the Only Way Forward
In the aftermath of VW’s multi-billion dollar diesel emissions cheating scandal that saw several executives face criminal charges and jail time, VW has been trying to reinvent itself as a clean, electric carmaker. It’s been making big moves, too. In addition to developing an entire family of VW and Audi electrics, it’s put big money aside to secure its battery supplies until at least 2023. Even with all that, the company still seems to have a credibility issue– and, as such, it’s released an official statement about its stance on global warming. Really. VW’s screed reads almost like a kid’s “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” theme, and VW’s execs really, really, really want you to know that they spent their summer vacation learnin...
Volkswagen Secures EV Batteries Through 2023
Between its Volkswagen, Audi, and Seat brands, the Volkswagen Group has committed to building more than 300,000 electric vehicles in 2021. That’s a whole lot of electric cars from the company that, not too long ago, was touting the benefits of “clean diesel”. As such, you can imagine that some people doubted the company’s commitment ability to deliver. VW, though, claims they’ve locked down a battery supplier … for a full three years. “I can confirm that for the first years of our plan, a sufficient supply of cells has been contractually secured,” said Thomas Ulbrich, the Volkswagen brand management board member in charge of electric mobility. He also added that the contract would ensure this was the case until 2023 in a bid to remove all dou...