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We're almost at the end of the first month of the Volkswagen scandal, which now includes 11 million cars and Leonardo DiCaprio. VW's US boss has testified to Congress, blaming a few rogue software engineers. All the while, questions have raged about VW Group's future: which projects are safe, which ones are on the chopping block, and how exactly will the company recover from this?
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VW's board has finally started to answer some of those swirling questions. For starters, there's going to be much more emphasis on electrification. Electric vehicles and hybrids have played more of a bit part at VW, compared to Toyota, GM, and domestic rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz. That's going to change with a standard electric architecture that can be used across multiple vehicles and brands.VW Group isn't devoid of hybrid and EV know-how. Audi's Le Mans program has taught it a lot about high voltage automotive systems, and Porsche has a wealth of experience from the 918 Spyder, Panamera Hybrid, and even the 919 Hybrid racer. VW would be smart to leverage all these programs.
VW is the largest car company in Europe. This is what sudden, disruptive technological change looks like.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MrGuy on Friday October 16 2015, @02:03AM
And what does it look like exactly?
Because to me, it looks like a buzzword-laden vision statement without a strong plan to back it up, being offered solely to distract from their criminal lying about their failure to actually achieve the last "sudden, disruptive change" they wanted to sell us (clean diesel).
Snake oil didn't work out for ya, eh? Well, I've got some eel oil here in the cupboard!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Friday October 16 2015, @02:07AM
This is what PR looks like. I guess a switch to electric in Europe is imminent now that diesel has been shown to be crap.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheLink on Friday October 16 2015, @05:11PM
Should be much easier to optimize the diesel engines for efficiency and environmental friendliness if you're just using them at a narrow operating band for charging the battery/capacitors. Or at most two bands- "normal charging" and "extra power".
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 16 2015, @02:07AM
Massssster, the villagers have caught us sacrificing young virgin girls to the gods of evil!
No problem, Eegor, just distract them with some new shiny baubles. Try this new EV. Now, do you have a supply of young virgins lined up for All Hallowed Night, or must we import some from Boko Haram?
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Friday October 16 2015, @02:18AM
That was my reaction as well. Funny thing, I was sure that "sudden, disruptive technological change" involves somebody unveiling a new (or dramatically improved) product that's so amazing that it becomes the standard in a relatively short period of time.
Though I guess that in the increasingly dystopian world we're living in, it'd have to involve some company lying its head off in order to make a few extra bucks at the expense of people's health/safety, then pushing blame onto a handful of individuals while pushing their new, more expensive products that weren't selling as well as they'd hoped. :-/
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Friday October 16 2015, @03:41AM
It looks like a sea change to me.
Look, Europe was committed to diesel. Not just Volkswagen. Diesel was was something akin to an official EU policy.
Now VW admits that they can not meet EU pollution requirements with their best technology, to say nothing about the tougher US standards. The tiny engine with blowers and direct injection still can't be made to meet the restrictions.
The towel has been thrown in.
VW is going to get out of Diesel as fast as they can, and go Electric. And that is probably the right decision.
The shorter distances in the EU are probably better suited to battery cars than is the US.
The EU has very little in the way of petroleum reserves. Diesel was always just a stop gap solution for the EU.
Nobody will trust VW diesels going forward anyway.
Much as you want to sling hatred for past sins, you should be willing to see this as a viable plan going forward.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Friday October 16 2015, @07:36AM
Driving an EV in Europe is a bit of a mixed bag some times, but is generally pretty good. What we need is more infrastructure (chargers), but even that will become less of an issue as new models with longer ranges come out. Nissan should have a 250km range Leaf out next year, for example.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 1) by xorsyst on Friday October 16 2015, @10:20AM
There are 2 problems I can see with EVs in Europe compared to US:
1. Fewer families have 2 cars. If you only have 1 car, having an EV means hiring a car for longer trips or missing out on making those trips. The current range of the Leaf, for example, won't even manage a decent family day out without charging infrastructure at the location you're going to.
2. Much housing stock without private drives for charging infrastructure at home. In England, for example, many older towns are full of victorian streets with on-road parking only.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday October 16 2015, @05:40PM
1) The Leaf is a joke wherever it is sold.
2) News Flash: Man Complains about Free Taxpayer subsidized parking!
These problems exist everywhere, in every big city. Battery Electric vehicles won't fit every situation. Maybe Fuel Cell electric [reuters.com] will work better. Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai are all coming out with fuel cell vehicles.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 16 2015, @03:20PM
Wonderful, we need a new source of Eurotard snobbery. Much like the crowing of how higher percentages of multi-lingual populations clearly show some innate moral and cultural superiority over the US and rest of the world, about ten years out we will hear how their higher proportions of EV vehicles on the road will obviously signify some innate moral and cultural superiority over the US and the rest of the world. Both cases largely ignoring the fact that those situations were unwillingly thrust upon them, the first necessitated by the fact that you have two or more populations speaking different languages confined to relatively small spaces, and the latter for the reasons you state.
There's a reason there are no European Googles and such, it is because to be in the best constitution for innovative and entrepreneurial thinking, one needs to look up from looking down one's nose and one needs the stick extracted from up inside their backside.