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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: 1) by Francis on Friday October 16 2015, @03:42AM
A shift from diesel and gas to electric is pretty much inevitable. At least for the bulk of the vehicles out there. I'm sure it's going to be a while before electrics are capable of handling the extremely low temperatures of the arctic. It's tough enough on gas or diesel cars, but electrics are still quite sensitive to temperature fluctuations.
The timing of the announcement is a bit fishy though.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday October 16 2015, @11:25AM
Of course the timing is fishy. Of course the President of VW is saying it for PR value. But they had to have been talking about EVs internally at VW already for years--my brother's an engineer at Ford and they are. But when the largest car company in Europe signals they're going all in on EVs, it sends shockwaves throughout the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) world. It means that every other car maker will have to accelerate their transition to EV models. It means that research budgets begin to shift away from the ICE to better batteries and composite materials (for weight savings). It means it starts to rapidly become less of a good idea to invest in oil stocks and to own gas stations. And given how tied huge chunks of the manufacturing economy are to the ICE, its parts suppliers, transportation, etc, that means a massive shift; none of those suppliers and regions are going to want to go slow to adapt lest they be left holding the bag.
Washington DC delenda est.