VW accidentally leaks new name for its U.S. operations: Voltswagen:
Volkswagen accidentally posted a press release on its website a month early on Monday announcing a new name for its U.S. operations, Voltswagen of America, emphasizing the German automaker's electric vehicle efforts.
A spokesman for the company declined to comment on the release, which was dated April 29 and has since been taken down.
A person familiar with the company's plans confirmed the authenticity of the release to CNBC. They asked to remain anonymous because the plans were not meant to be public yet.
[...] Volts are the derived units for electric potential, also known as electromotive force, between two points. General Motors previously used Volt for a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle between 2010 and 2019.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @01:04AM
TFA was a day early for April fools but electric vehicles are sold all year.
(Score: 2, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 01 2021, @01:09AM (6 children)
I'm The Mighty Buzzard and I approve this pun.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @01:48AM (5 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @02:15AM (3 children)
Fuck those cunts. This is the company where the execs tried to dump blame on the engineers when their emissions cheating came to light.
Hope the SEC takes a good chunk out of them.
(Is there a new TMB filter that replaces "fuck" with "duck"? You know what I mean.)
(Score: 1) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 01 2021, @03:13AM (1 child)
My tip of the hat both to the legendary 4chan duckroll and your phone's autocorrect. It's only on render, Friday your ducks shall all be back in a row.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @05:21PM
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 01 2021, @04:45AM
For what? Is there a blackout period for April Fool's jokes now?
(Score: 2, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 01 2021, @03:07AM
So I'm not allowed to like a joke now? Shit, did I become a progressive while I wasn't paying attention? Someone needs to keep me informed about shit like this.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @01:27AM (2 children)
Yeah, VW put up a PR stunt.
So what.
(Score: 2, Informative) by hemocyanin on Thursday April 01 2021, @01:47AM
"PR Stunt" is accurate: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-us-voltswagen-operations-was-april-fools-marketing-prank-source-says.html [cnbc.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @02:45AM
Reminds me of the time I accidentally let everyone know I have a big dick.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @01:30AM (5 children)
Changing your name won't bring back all the Jews driven to the gas chambers in your vehicles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @01:45AM
The future is electric! Hang an alt-right at the next intersection and let Aristarchus educate you on histri [fandom.com] and how we could all have been ethanol fueled [bbc.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @03:48AM (2 children)
Unless VW Group pull a major miracle rabbit from their hat (helmet?), they are going noplace. The quality is garbage.
https://youtu.be/5xe-kuvh4vg [youtu.be] (Audi eTron - part 2)
https://youtu.be/ZH7V2tU3iFc [youtu.be] (driving EVs until they died) Note the warnings on the brand new VW!
Tesla is a non-player as its just pure spyware on wheels, controlled from Tesla HQ and Elon's desktop.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Thursday April 01 2021, @03:55AM
Just look at the 'smart' phone market.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 02 2021, @02:49PM
VW didn't bother finding out that etron means turd in French.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @05:18AM
The vehicle has a gas chamber now ja? What happens to the ash tray?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @01:53AM (5 children)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Thursday April 01 2021, @10:48AM (3 children)
While it might have been a premature prank I actually liked the name Voltswagen. I thought it was kind of funny and apt for an electrical vehicle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @12:08PM (2 children)
But that would be disrespectful to the man who thought up the name Volkswagen in the first place, Germany's beloved Adolf Hitler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @04:18PM (1 child)
Good 'ol Adolf! Except that he didn't actually name the car Volkswagen, it's the name of the company. The project was already started before Adolf came to power, he just made sure the government sank a lot of money into it. To bad they didn't name it after the designer cause then a Porsche might have been affordable.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday April 02 2021, @09:26AM
The company came into existence years after Hitler came to power, directly instigated by Hitler via the DAF, and funded by the NSDAP, to fullfil his promise of a vehicle for the masses. There were various "volksautos" projects in existence before this riffing off Hitler's idea, Merc and BMW both had one for example, but only VW was the Volkswagen.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Informative) by richtopia on Thursday April 01 2021, @03:28PM
This April Fools Prank might end up in trouble with the SEC.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/31/volkswagen-hoaxes-media-with-fake-statement-on-name-change.html [cnbc.com]
5% bump in stock purely because of a name change. Hell, if the SEC goes to fine VW, maybe they should own it and make the new name official.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 02 2021, @05:01PM
If anyone comes back here...
https://www.motortrend.com/features-collections/april-fools-day-jokes-auto-industry-2021/?slide=6 [motortrend.com]
BMW looked at customer usage data and chose to delete the least used features...the turn signals!