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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: 2) by M. Baranczak on Friday October 16 2015, @09:41PM
Snow is a problem, but it's not a show-stopper. I live in central NY state, and we get plenty of snow, but I still see solar panels all over the place. The panels are tilted, and they're mounted where the sun shines - so the snow melts, sublimates and/or slides off pretty quickly. Also, the snow season doesn't last that long - 4 months at most, usually 2 or 3. And those are the months with the shortest days, so you're not losing that much sun, anyway.
Which brings me to the real problem. On the winter solstice, we only get 9 hours of daylight, so we can't rely too heavily on solar. We'll always need something to supplement it. Unless we store the excess power during the summer, and use it in the winter, but that's not feasible at the moment.