VW Group Admits Developing Affordable EVs Will Be Difficult

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

Even with affordable electric vehicles cropping up on the global market, their budgetary nature is relative. While the industry promises that EVs will offer the world an affordable, mechanically simple and green alternative to traditional internal combustion models, they’ve yet to deliver. That’s not to suggest e-cars are failures, just that the technologies involved are still maturing.

Battery prices will continue to decline and eventually governments won’t always need to incentivize EV purchases through tax credits. But we’ve yet to reach the point where it makes just as much financial sense to buy a small EV as it would a gasoline-powered econobox. That could soon change.

Volkswagen Group, the largest automaker to seriously stake its future in electrification, has tapped the Seat brand to blaze the trail of truly affordable, fully electric city cars, based on a shortened version of the group’s modular MEB platform. It admits there are plenty of obstacles VW engineers have yet to overcome.

According to Automotive News, VW brand development chief Frank Welsch said the automaker is looking into radical changes for the EV architecture earmarked for the group’s smaller city EVs. Among those solutions is a proposal to shrink essential drivetrain components and bring the amount of materials that goes into an electric vehicle to a bare minimum. Welsch also said that the two banks of battery cells fitted perpendicular to the door sills could be rotated by 90 degrees.

“That would give us more space between the battery and the sills, and hence a greater cushion should an accident occur,” he explained. “Safety is a major priority at Volkswagen and a lot of money is spent trying to protect the battery cells in the event of a crash.”

There are other aspects to consider. “We have to see, for example, whether the range of electric motors we currently have planned for the MEB need to be supplemented with a smaller one for example [sic],” Welsch said.

Unfortunately, adding complexity to a manufacturing process that was clearly decided upon to minimize just that is less than ideal. MEB was supposed to be ultra versatile, maximizing the number of parts shared between vehicles.

From Automotive News:

Welsch said it hasn’t been decided either whether such a motor should be an induction motor rather than the competing format intended for use in the ID, which uses a permanent magnet that requires rare earths.

Currently VW Group’s entry-level electric car is the VW e-Up. Skoda will launch a Citigo EV based on the e-Up this year and Seat’s Mii EV will go on sale next year.

The Mii will serve as a “appetizer” until the new small MEB cars are launched, Seat CEO Luca de Meo said at the brand’s annual results conference on Wednesday.

Since these new vehicles are all supposed to be under 162 inches in length, North America isn’t likely to see many. But the overriding plan is for the auto group to build up its pint-sized EVs across all brands after Seat makes its initial European push in 2023. Following that, there’s a decent possibility that VW could try to market something extra small through its I.D. sub-brand in our neck of the woods.

The key takeaway from all of this is that VW is openly acknowledging that affordable electrification is much harder to pull off than the industry initially led us to believe. After so many years spent promising us the moon, it’s refreshing to hear any automaker level with the public and outline the obstacles they’ve yet to overcome. Development is hard and it’s okay to remind us of that. It keeps consumers from feeling tricked or asking stupid questions about why entry-level EVs are still so expensive versus their internal-combustion alternative.

“Anyone can build an expensive car. The most difficult task as an engineer is to build an affordable one,” Welsch said, adding that VW’s small electric platform would be an essential step in finally providing the (Western) world with inexpensive electric vehicles.

[Image: Volkswagen Group]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Buickman Buickman on Apr 10, 2019

    Show & Tell. let's show these global elitist CFR, Bilderberg Bozos that we don't want them forcing products on us we don't want and resist government sponsorship that reeks of Communism

    • HotPotato HotPotato on Apr 11, 2019

      You're hilarious. The automotive industry is more dependent on government largesse and indirect subsidies (e.g. infrastructure) than any other with the possible exception of aerospace.

  • Jcwconsult Jcwconsult on Apr 11, 2019

    Electric vehicles will be a mainstream choice for many consumers when: 1) the minimum range under very hot or cold conditions is 250 miles, 2) recharging stations are along almost every highway, 3) recharging takes a maximum of 15 minutes, and 4) the overall costs of purchase, fuel, & service are about the same as for a conventional car - WITHOUT government subsidies that rob people whose needs make EVs an impossible choice.

    • ThomasSchiffer ThomasSchiffer on Apr 11, 2019

      Correct. Until the poor range and long charging times are solved, then I will find an EV attractive. Until then, I will stick with my diesel Skoda Octavia and diesel Mercedes GL320 CDI 4Matic.

  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
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