Volkswagen Has a Low-priced EV Plan to Keep Rivals At Bay: Report

by Steph Willems

Published: November 9th, 2018

volkswagen has a low priced ev plan to keep rivals at bay report

Volkswagen doesn’t want competitors unsurping its electric car efforts, so there’s a plan afoot to give buyers what they want at a much lower price, sources claim. Two reports, citing those with knowledge of a strategy not yet approved by the automaker’s supervisory board, state the company plans to go cheaper than its upcoming line of I.D.-badged EVs.

How cheap, you ask? How about $21,000?

That’s the price stated by Bloomberg in its late-Thursday report, with sources claiming the vehicle — a subcompact crossover — would enter production in 2020, likely at VW’s Emden, Germany assembly plant. Production would total 200,000 vehicles per year.

VW’s first MEB-platform electric vehicle, called the I.D. Neo (seen above), is also headed for a 2020 production start date, with the company claiming the hatchback will start around $26,000. Slotting a new, cheaper vehicle below that would help cover VW Group’s bases. While the report cites Tesla as a main competitor, the yet-undelivered base Model 3 carries a price of $35,000 in the U.S. and wouldn’t be any less costly in Europe. With this entry-level EV, VW would be guarding its back door against the likes of Renault and other affordable, mainstream automakers.

A report in Reuters states pretty much the same thing, with a source saying the new vehicle would cost less than 20,000 euros (or less than $22,836). All of this is designed to protect VW’s massive domestic workforce from dastardly, diesel-hating lawmakers and cunning automotive rivals. VW is expected to lay out the plan at a Nov. 16 strategy meeting.

With VW’s product horizon filling up with EVs, plant capacity becomes a problem. While the automaker still makes internal combustion cars and light trucks, not all of those models need to be produced in Germany. Production of VW’s Transporter van could make its way to a Ford plant in Turkey, a source claimed. Ah, the Ford connection rears its head again.

A slew of reports in recent days suggest the VW-Ford partnership could take a number of forms, and it’s not out of the question that VW would grant its American counterpart access to its MEB electric architecture. In addition to a light commercial vehicle pair-up, the German automaker also seems interested in the Ford Ranger platform.

[Image: Volkswagen]

#ElectricVehicles #EVs #ProductPlanning #Volkswagen #VW

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6 of 44 comments

Tylanner on Nov 09, 2018

EVs are a global mandate....Funny how in many of the efforts to boil this prospect down to the essentials invariably omit the only factors that really matter.... The EV problems presented are often made from a position of self-prescribed ignorance...a fatal partiality. These are targeted at daily commuters....an EVs range only limits the population of commuters for which the product is applicable. In fact, I would argue that an EV with a shorter range (smaller battery) has a place in the market...if your commute is only 20 miles each way it wouldn’t make sense to carry 200 extra miles worth of battery mass each way everyday...some people cannot grasp the simple foundation of what makes EVs benefitial... The ICE is not the benchmark...it’s the dinosaur.

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- Mcs on Nov 09, 2018
  
  From Clifford Stoll in 1995 in a Newsweek article: "Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obsolete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn't—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople." Now the malls are shutting down. There's even more in the full article: https://www.newsweek.com/clifford-stoll-why-web-wont-be-nirvana-185306 There's also Samuel Vauclain of Baldwin Locomotive. Thought steam would dominate into the 80's.
  
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- Stingray65 on Nov 09, 2018
  
  Except you need lots of extra capacity because current battery technology requires you only use the middle 50% to 60% of capacity to avoid premature degradation. Factor in some cold weather and you lose another 20 to 30% of capacity. So your 20 mile battery ends up giving a reliable range of 7 or 8 miles in cold weather, and will still likely need 15 minutes or more to charge back up to 80%. Poor range is the reason a used Leafs can be purchased for little more than the price of a bag of leaves.
  
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- Stingray65 on Nov 09, 2018
  
  MCS - so it only took 23 years for Stoll to be proven partially wrong (as I believe there are still substantial brick and mortar retail going on)? I don't know when Vauclain's quote is from, but he died in 1940 and steam locomotives were still selling well into the early 1950s in the US, late 50s in the UK and Germany, and were not taken out of daily service until this century in India and China. Governments also didn't need to give subsidies for the railroads to convert to diesel/electric or for shoppers to move online.
  
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- Mcs on Nov 09, 2018
  
  @stingray65 "you only use the middle 50% to 60% of capacity to avoid premature degradation" Not really true with current technology. I'd say the top 70 percent is fine, but... that may be because manufacturers are putting in extra capacity at the top to give the illusion of a 100% charge. That comes from my own personal experience and Tesloops 300k and 400k mile Teslas. I've made long trips in subzero Fahrenheit temps in a 100-mile range Leaf. I think the first leg was just under 50 miles and the second 35 and the temp was -4. Can't remember the exact numbers. But, still, a 50-mile range out of it at highway speeds. Recently, at 30 degrees Fahrenheit, I think I'm seeing a drop to 82 miles range. Speed was 60 mph most of the way on a 55 mph road with some 65 mph driving as well. This is on a Leaf mileage in the mid 70k's. So, they've made some improvements in the batteries from what was in the Leaf 1.0. Also, I have no problem charging to 100% every time for the last 70k+ miles. Tesloop charges to 100% as well and they haven't had major degradation either.
  
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ThomasSchiffer on Nov 09, 2018

My city car is a compact 1993 Renault Twingo. It is a cheap, disposable car that has gone through four owners but continues to serve me well. However, with the current CO2 hysteria here I may soon be forced to get rid of this reliable but ‘highly polluting’ (according to our hysterical virtue signaling politicians) car. An EV for the city would be wonderful, such as a Renault Zoe with a range of 180-316 km. The e-Golf or better yet the smaller but roomy e-Up! are also interesting EVs.

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