VW – Page 3222 – I wish I had more to offer

Audi to launch Q8 in India in January

NEW DELHI: German luxury carmaker Audi will bring its flagship SUV Q8 in India in January next year as part of its strategy to strengthen presence in the country by 2025. The company has already started taking orders for the vehicle from the weekend as it looks to re-enter the top end of the luxury… Continue reading Audi to launch Q8 in India in January

Volkswagen Announces Pre-Production At Chinese Electric Vehicle factory

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Published on November 9th, 2019 |

by Tim Dixon

Volkswagen Announces Pre-Production At Chinese Electric Vehicle factory

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November 9th, 2019 by Tim Dixon

Volkswagen has announced that it has started pre-production of the Volkswagen ID at its first purely EV-focused factory in China.

The new factory had only broken ground last year, similar to the Tesla Gigafactory 3, and it is a testament to how quickly China can roll out manufacturing infrastructure.

Volkswagen has been moving quickly to embrace battery electric vehicles after the diesel gate scandal but in China, they have additional pressure from the Chinese EV mandate which requires companies to produce new energy vehicles or buy credits from those that do.

Because of this, Volkswagen has worked with both of its long term joint venture partners (SAIC and FAW) and its new joint venture partner (JAC) to build electric vehicles and hybrids to meet its quota and maintain market access.

On the 8th of November, the company announced that it had started pre-production of a Chinese specific Volkswagen ID at its new factory in the town of Anting in a district of Shanghai, China. This is interesting as that is just 4 days after it started preproduction in its converted Zwickau plant in Germany, which was covered by CleanTechnica here and here

While the factory is starting pre-production after only one year since groundbreaking, Volkswagen has stated that it won’t start official volume production until October 2020. The factory volume production rate is 300,000 per year.

Dr. Stephan Wöllenstein, CEO of Volkswagen Group China, said:

“It took only 12 months to see the completion of this innovative factory. Congratulations to our colleagues in Anting, who will further prepare to produce the first China-model of the Volkswagen ID. family here in Shanghai. We will speed up our NEV offensive even more, as we expect further e-mobility market growth.”

Dr. Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, said:

“Together with the start of MEB production, we will launch the Volkswagen ID. family in China as well, a brand-new generation of fully electric and connected vehicles.”

Volkswagen is not doing this alone, so let’s see what the company is doing with its partners.

VW Group Chinese EV partners
SAIC
The Anting, Shanghai electric vehicle factory has a production capacity of 300,000 cars and is part of its SAIC joint venture. The factory has the ability to have six different car models in production.

FAW
In Foshan, they will have an electric vehicle factory with production capacity for another 300,000 electric vehicles as part of its FAW joint venture.

JAC (SOL)
In Hefei, Anhui, China, Volkswagen has a joint venture with JAC to produce over 100,000 electric vehicles under the new joint venture brand SOL. Starting with the E20X, the factory is under construction but the SOL e20x is already being manufactured and sold in China, but they didn’t do big announcements as it’s not based on its MEB platform.

Total
SAIC and FAW will use Volkswagen’s Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB) platform, so 600,000 MEB-based Volkswagen ID vehicles could be built in China by 2021 (They open in late 2020). Add to this the 100,000 BEV produced by the Volkswagen JAC joint venture and the production capacity grand total for China is 700,000 vehicles in 2021 if they do not add extra capacity. Very impressive.

The company plans on having 15 MEB models from different Volkswagen group brands built in China by 2025, so expect more news of plants and models coming in the next couple of years.

Conclusion
Volkswagen has taken another step to bring its vision of staying relevant (and in business) in the 21st century into being. This is good news for those that want to see a sustainable future, and for more information on Volkswagen’s international vision for affordable and mass-market EVs, I advise you read this article from Steve Hanley.

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About the Author

Tim Dixon When not researching the Chinese electric car market, I am teaching in China. My interest in sustainable development started in University and it led me to work with Tesla Europe in the Supercharger team. I'm interested in science fiction, D&D, and travel. You can follow me on Twitter @TimDixon3.

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Volkswagen starts mass production of new battery systems in Germany

BERLIN, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) — Germany's largest car manufacturer Volkswagen has started mass production of battery systems for its upcoming electric vehicles, Volkswagen Group announced on Friday.
According to Volkswagen, the newly constructed facility in the German city of Brunswick would be producing up to half a million battery systems annually.
In addition to the production of the new battery systems, the new system's hardware and software was also developed at the Volkswagen facility in Brunswick.
A total of over 300 million euros (331 million U.S. dollars) had been invested in the new building at the company's main production site in Brunswick, the German car manufacturer announced.
“At our Brunswick location, we have a great deal of know-how in the planning and development of the high-voltage battery systems and are now setting new standards in production for the entire group,” said Thomas Schmall, chairman of the board of management at Volkswagen group components.
“..

Tesla Model Y Prototype Spotted, NHTSA Looking Into Tesla Battery Fires As Trolls Swarm

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Published on November 2nd, 2019 |

by Steve Hanley

Tesla Model Y Prototype Spotted, NHTSA Looking Into Tesla Battery Fires As Trolls Swarm

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November 2nd, 2019 by Steve Hanley

Good news and bad news in the Teslaverse today. The price of shares in the company will either rise or fall on Monday as a result. Let’s begin with the good news, shall we?

Tesla Model Y Prototype Spotted On California Highway

Whilst motoring serenely along on a California highway last week, YouTuber kenken830 noticed a vehicle he had never seen before coming up on his left. It turns out the car was a Tesla Model Y prototype out on a test drive. Kenken830 followed the car for several miles, capturing video of it with his car’s built-in cameras.

Through a happy coincidence, a friend of his was also driving along the same highway in a Tesla Model 3 at that moment. For a while, the two cars were side by side, making it possible to assess their size relative to each other for the first time in a real-world driving situation. Watch the video for yourself to see the difference, which is quite remarkable. Several people who watched the video have commented that the Model Y is much larger in comparison to the Model 3 than they realized.

If it is true the world is crazy for SUVs, then Tesla is about to unleash an all electric SUV with all the features and benefits of the Model 3 that targets the most popular cars in the new car marketplace today, cars like the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Hyundai Kona, and Volkswagen Tiguan. Even cars like the Jaguar I-PACE, Audi e-tron, and Mercedes EQC will be in its crosshairs. Elon Musk has stated publicly he sees the Model Y outselling the Model S, Model X, and Model 3 combined! Seeing the Model Y up close and personal like this makes it seem Musk’s words are more than an idle boast.

The hope for Tesla fans is that the Model Y will get here sooner rather than later. During the most recent Tesla earnings call, Musk indicated the timetable for Model Y production is being moved forward by several months. There are rumors the first of them could begin rolling off the assembly line in Fremont before the end of the first quarter next year — not a moment too soon for Tesla fans.

NHTSB Opens Investigation Into Tesla Battery Fires
A report in the New York Times carries this headline: “Tesla Batteries Investigated for Possible Defects.” The story itself is a hatchet job that hardly rises to the level of journalism, something the Times does over and over again when the topic is Tesla. Here’s what you need to know: Last April, a camera in a parking garage in Shanghai captured what appeared to be a Tesla Model S bursting into flame. Tesla immediately sent a team to investigate and determined that a battery cell had failed and triggered the incident.

In response to its findings, Tesla created an over-the-air update for the battery management system installed in some of its cars to “further protect the battery and improve longevity,” according to Green Car Reports. That update decreased the range of those cars according to several owners. That’s when attorney Edward Chen got involved. He filed suit on behalf of the affected owners, claiming that all Tesla batteries are defective and that the company tried to get out of its legal liability to provide defect-free products with an OTA that cost little to nothing.

This was all done “under the guise of ‘safety’ and increasing the ‘longevity’ of the batteries of the Class Vehicles,” the complaint stated. “Tesla fraudulently manipulated its software with the intent to avoid its duties and legal obligations to customers to fix, repair, or replace the batteries of the Class Vehicles, all of which Tesla knew were defective, yet failed to inform its customers of the defects.” At the time the lawsuit was filed. Chen said in a statement, “This is no different than what Apple did to their older iPhones in the throttling and performance case.”

After the suit was filed, Tesla issued a statement saying, “A very small percentage of owners of older Model S and Model X vehicles may have noticed a small reduction in range when charging to a maximum state of charge following a software update designed to improve battery longevity. As previously noted, we have been working to mitigate the impact on range for these owners and have been rolling out over-the-air updates to address this issue since last week.”

Not satisfied with the progress of the litigation, Chen fired off a letter in September to NHTSA requesting it open an investigation into Tesla batteries and any BMS updates. In turn, the agency sent a letter to Tesla in October demanding information on — Are you sitting down? — all Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles ever built and all OTA since the beginning of this year. The letter ends with a threat to impose more than $100 million in fines on the company if it does not respond fully by November 28. The Times report clearly relishes the idea that Tesla might have to pay dearly for negligence.

This is clearly an attempt to work the refs, as they say in sports. Chen’s letter to NHTSA has the effect of putting pressure on Tesla to settle the lawsuit. The New York Times in its reporting breathlessly notes that lithium-ion batteries are known to catch fire under some circumstances, such as in early iterations of the Boeing Dreamliner and in various smartphones. It makes sure its readers know lithium-ion batteries are banned on commercial aircraft and that not only did a Tesla catch fire in Shanghai, a car in the US actually caught fire twice! In his letter to NHTSA, Chen refers to the “alarming number of car fires that have occurred worldwide.”

Oh my God! Hide the women and children to protect them from this danger! But never, ever mention that there are more than 150 gasoline fires every day in the United States. The Times even goes so far as to conflate the claim by Walmart that rooftop solar systems provided by Tesla have caught fire at several locations with the danger of vehicle battery fires. The message is clear: stay away from Teslas if you don’t want to get burned or blown up.

I confess I read the New York ‘Times on a daily basis and consider it an authoritative news source in most instances. (Besides, I have a crush on Maureen Dowd, even though her profile photo is probably more than 20 years out of date.) But I have to say its reporting on Tesla falls to the level of the garbage spit out routinely by the likes of the Daily Mail. It is solidly on the side of the Tesla FUD network and undeserving of any credibility whatsoever. When it comes to the NYT and Tesla, caveat lectorem!
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About the Author

Steve Hanley Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Rhode Island and anywhere else the Singularity may lead him. His motto is, “Life is not measured by how many breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away!” You can follow him on Google + and on Twitter.

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One in ten Daimler managers should leave

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SAIC Volkswagen’s New EV Only Plant In China Starts Pre-Production

The manufacturing capacity will be 300,000 all-electric cars annually. Volkswagen‘s joint venture with SAIC has launched today an all-new and electric-only manufacturing plant in Anting, China, which is envisioned to produce MEB-based models for various Volkswagen Group‘s brands. The new plant in Anting begins pre-production of electric cars just one year after ground-breaking, although series-production… Continue reading SAIC Volkswagen’s New EV Only Plant In China Starts Pre-Production

Merged PSA and Fiat would retain all brands: Tavares

PARIS/TURIN, Italy (Reuters) – Peugeot maker PSA Group (PEUP.PA) and Fiat Chrysler (FCHA.MI) would retain all of their car brands if their planned $50 billion merger goes ahead, the would-be chief executive of the combined group said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: CEO of the PSA Group, Carlos Tavares attends the 89th Geneva International Motor Show… Continue reading Merged PSA and Fiat would retain all brands: Tavares

Audi increases deliveries in October by 26.8 percent to around 149,150 cars

AUDI AG delivered around 149,150 cars to customers worldwide in October. This represents a 26.8 percent increase on the prior-year period. All three core regions performed positively: In China, an increase of 6.0 percent represents a new record figure for deliveries. In North America, the Four Rings increased deliveries by 15.6 percent. In Europe, deliveries… Continue reading Audi increases deliveries in October by 26.8 percent to around 149,150 cars

Volkswagen’s Shanghai EV plant with SAIC has started trial production -VW CEO

Volkswagen is trying to leapfrog peers by readying two Chinese EV factories by next year, Reuters reported last month. SHANGHAI- Trial production has started at Volkswagen AG‘s (VW) and SAIC Motor Corp Ltd’s $2.5 billion electric vehicle (EV) factory in Shanghai, VW’s chief executive said on Friday, the latest development in the race to sell… Continue reading Volkswagen’s Shanghai EV plant with SAIC has started trial production -VW CEO

Suzuki rethinks promise of India’s auto market, and it is not alone

* India autos will no longer see uninterrupted move upwards-Suzuki * Global players re-evaluating strategy, focus on strengths * Taxes, regulatory changes plaguing global car makers in India By Aditi Shah NEW DELHI, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Suzuki Motor Corp said it was no longer gung-ho about India’s auto market, the world’s fourth-largest, where it… Continue reading Suzuki rethinks promise of India’s auto market, and it is not alone