VW – Page 3297 – I wish I had more to offer

Audi delivered around 140,300 automobiles to customers in April

AUDI AG delivered around 140,300 cars to customers worldwide in April, down 12.8 percent year-on-year. Model changeovers affecting volume models such as the Audi A6 continued to have an adverse effect. The new Audi Q3 has developed its potential in Europe so far, with strong growth in countries such as France (+109.0%) or Germany (+97.6%);… Continue reading Audi delivered around 140,300 automobiles to customers in April

UPDATE 2-Continental powertrain IPO could be delayed further after profit slides

* First-quarter net profit falls 22 pct to 575 mln euros * Expects market upturn in second half * Affirms guidance for operating margin of 8-9 pct * CFO says powertrain IPO depends on market conditions (Recasts, adds CFO quotes on powertrain IPO) HAMBURG/BERLIN, May 9 (Reuters) – German automotive supplier Continental’s spin-off of its… Continue reading UPDATE 2-Continental powertrain IPO could be delayed further after profit slides

AAA study finds Americans warm to electric vehicles, but most aren’t ready to buy — at least not yet

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Americans aren't ready to buy electric vehicles and don't think their neighbors are either, according to a new study by AAA.

That said, as many as 40 million Americans say they will at least consider a battery-electric vehicle, or BEV, for their next vehicle, the automotive group found. And the public may be more interested in battery-based vehicles as a flood of new models comes to market, but only four in 10 people believe that the majority of vehicles will be electric by 2029. The majority of Americans actually expect that most new cars will be able to drive themselves within the coming decade.

“Today, more than 200,000 electric cars can be found on roads across the country as almost every manufacturer sells them,” said Greg Brannon, AAA's director of automotive engineering. “But, like other new vehicle technologies, Americans don't have the full story and that could be causing the gap between interest and action.”

Battery-based vehicles of all forms, including conventional hybrids, plug-in hybrids and BEVs, accounted for barely 5% of the American new car market last year. But plug-based models, BEVs in particular, saw sales roughly double, according to industry data. And the numbers are expected to continue growing rapidly as more long-range offerings, such as the Audi e-tron crossover, the Tesla Model Y SUV and the Porsche Taycan sports car come to market. By mid-decade, industry analysts such as LMC Automotive anticipate well over 100 options for potential buyers.

But the AAA study shows that Americans haven't been keeping up with the rapid rate of change reshaping the electric vehicle market, including the shift from first-generation models barely capable of running 100 miles on a charge to new and updated offerings that are now approaching 400 miles per charge.

“Many consumers are not sure what to expect from an electric vehicle,” a summary of the AAA report found, such as what sort of conditions typically yield the best range. As with hybrids like the Toyota Prius, electric vehicles can recapture energy lost during braking and coasting, which means they actually do better in stop-and-go traffic than on the highway – the opposite of what's true for conventional, gas-powered vehicles.

There remains plenty of confusion about what electric vehicles can and can't do, and not only in the United States. A survey of British motorists last year found 42% saying a BEV can't be driven through a car wash. It can. Some new models, like the Jaguar I-Pace, can even ford moderately deep levels of water.

The AAA study found that a growing number of Americans are at least considering BEVs and other electrified models, with millennials at the forefront. Other findings show:

Sixteen percent of those surveyed said they are likely to buy an EV next time they shop for a new vehicle.Concern about the environment is the primary motivator, cited by 74% of those surveyed; lowering vehicle operating costs is mentioned by 56% of those surveyed.There are fewer worries about the traditional obstacles to widespread adoption. The study found 11% fewer respondents pointing to a lack of places to charge up than raised that concern in a 2017 study.Significantly fewer respondents pointed to higher purchase prices and repair costs than in the 2017 AAA study.

Limited range, higher costs and the lack of a public charging infrastructure are traditionally seen as the key obstacles to mainstream adoption of battery-electric vehicles. But a number of new models now cost under $40,000. And the AAA found 44% of buyers would be willing to pay up to $4,000 more for an electric vehicle than a gas model, with 23% willing to pay even more of a premium.

A potential selling point is that the range of the second-generation models now coming to market routinely top 200 miles. Tesla is now offering an extended-range pack for its Model S sedan capable of 370 miles.

Concerns about charging nonetheless remain a major issue, with six in 10 of those surveyed raising that issue as a reason they are unlikely to buy, or are unsure about buying, a BEV. Fifty-seven percent said they think electric vehicles aren't suitable for long-distance travel.

Public charging is still limited, especially in the middle of the country, but companies including ChargePoint, EVgo and Electrify America plan to invest billions over the coming decade to fill that gap. And the latest versions of their high-speed Level 3 chargers are capable of delivering as much as 20 miles of range per minute, meaning a “fill-up” can be cut to around 10 minutes on some vehicles, roughly matching what it takes to fill a gas tank.

“These vehicles are a big part of the future of transportation since self-driving cars, when they do arrive, will likely be electric,” AAA's Brannon said. “The difference, of course, is that electric vehicles are already here (and) have become an even more viable option for many Americans.”

First Mercedes-Benz EQC rolls off assembly line in Germany

2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC Edition 1886
German automakers have all said they will go all-in on electric cars, Yet so far, few have actually arrived, with the Audi E-tron trickling into a few U.S. dealerships last week.

Now Mercedes-Benz has announced that it produced its first new electric EQC SUV on Monday at its factory in Bremen, Germany. The car will go on sale in Europe, but is not expected to come to the U.S. until next year.

We're headed out to sample the EQC from behind the wheel and will update readers as soon as we've had a chance to gather first impressions.

CHECK OUT: Mercedes-Benz EQC Edition 1886 electric SUV kicks off a new era

In the meantime, Mercedes says the EQC's 80 kilowatt-hour battery will give it a range of 280 miles on the old, and very optimistic, New European Drive Cycle tests. That could equate to little more than 200 miles in the U.S., though Mercedes has said it will have as much as 279 miles of range when it goes on sale here.

The EQC's main competitor, the 2019 Audi E-tron quattro, which just went on sale, has only a 204-mile EPA range rating.

The EQC also includes a relatively fast 7.4-kilowatt Level 2 onboard charger.

DON'T MISS: It's a long(er) story? 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC scraps 200-mile range estimate

Mercedes announced European pricing, with a “base version” that starts at 71,281 euros, or just short of $80,000. That makes it slightly less expensive than the E-tron quattro in Europe.

With a “net basic price,” Mercedes says, of less than 60,000 euros (just over $67,000) it qualifies for Germany's 4,000-euro federal tax incentive for EVs.

READ MORE: 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC specs revealed (Updated)

Mercedes says the EQC will get between 3 and 3.3 miles per kilowatt-hour.

The EQC is based on Mercedes' GLC SUV and expected to go into production in the U.S. at Mercedes's Tuscaloosa, Alabama, factory late this year, with batteries produced at another plant near the factory.

Tesla Thanks VW

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Published on May 8th, 2019 |

by Maarten Vinkhuyzen

Tesla Thanks VW

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May 8th, 2019 by Maarten Vinkhuyzen

Today was another exiting day for the electric drive aficionados. Volkswagen presented its ID. sub-brand to the world, with the first model, the ID.3, ready for reservation. The times that VW was short for VaporWare are over.

My colleagues are covering everything there is to say about today’s announcement from a VW perspective. This article is about the impact on the competition.

Who are the competition? We have seen announcements from PSA about the Peugeot e-208 — and its siblings for the Opel, Citroen, and DS brands. We expect the Renault Zoe and Nissan Leaf to become mature with larger batteries and usable DC fast charging. In the upper regions of the market, the Jaguar I-PACE, Audi e-tron, Mercedes-Benz EQC, Polestar 2, and Porsche Taycan are all trying to get a piece, and the 900 pound gorilla out of Fremont, California, is extending its market to the rest of the world.

What the competition is not doing (yet) is launching a big marketing campaign. This afternoon’s presentation will be a big news item on the evening news in much of Europe, followed by repeated segments on all the mobility and auto shows on television and numerous articles in the car segments of major newspapers and in auto magazines.

What VW is doing with this introduction of its ID. sub-brand is giving electric cars a seal of approval that no other carmaker has provided. It is not that VW has something new for a few enthusiasts (most of you reading this). However, VW is saying that electric vehicles will replace their fossil fuel models in the coming years, likely in the next decade, and transfers the story we enthusiasts know so well to the broader public. VW is clearly all-in, which means a lot more to the average Joe (or Jürgen) than Tesla predicting the industry will go electric. It also means a lot to all of VW’s conventional auto industry colleagues.

Thank You, VW
The impact on the competition can go two ways in the eyes of many critics and followers. Those who see the electric car space as a limited space will argue that VW will push the competition to the margins. VW will crush the ambitions of PSA, Renault, Nissan, and most of all Tesla, according to these people. The competition is here — go home, Tesla. No doubt Seeking Alpha and Wall Street will see this as another sign of the coming demise of the upstart from California.

The market researchers who see the auto market as one market where all powertrains are competing for a bigger slice think differently. The battery electric powertrain is still mostly unknown and misunderstood. The biggest problem is still convincing customers that fully electric cars are real cars, better cars. Able to do everything one expects from a normal car, but better.

This media campaign by VW will not only sell a lot of ID.3 cars all over Europe. It will also sell a lot of Leafs, Zoes, e-208s, i3s, Konas, Niros, and most of all, very many Tesla Model 3s. It is the perfect example of a rising tide lifting all ships.

The competition in the luxury segment from Jaguar, Audi, Mercedes, and Porsche is mostly sold out for over 12 months. Some have stopped taking new orders. It will be frustrating for automakers to see this tide wash away fossil fuel sales without having the capacity to profit with their own new electric offerings. The interest VW is generating can only be turned into orders by Tesla, because it’s the only company with the production capacity and maturity to profit right now from this rising tide.

It is great to be the only one that can deliver in volume when the competition starts a media campaign. Tesla (investors) must thank VW for this present. Other automakers in the top half of the EV market — Renault, Nissan, Peugeot, Hyundai, and Kia — should also thank VW for the long-term benefit, for the extra demand and interest they get from VW’s public push.

Editor’s note: One thing I found interesting from the Q&A after the presentation was that journalists repeatedly referenced Tesla without saying “Tesla” — but everyone knew what company was being referenced. Something I learned long ago in a sociology class was that unspoken shared assumptions are often the most powerful — they are so clear that no one has to speak them. It is clear that Tesla is setting the high bar for this competition. And not only were the questioners clearly referencing Tesla — many of the highlights of VW’s presentation were essentially VW’s copies of what Tesla had done, what Tesla had shown consumers like and want.

This is, honestly, not a knock on VW. To the contrary, I think it’s very big of VW and a sign of strong long-term vision that the gigantic company swallowed its pride and rolled into its doors and policies numerous lessons it learned from Tesla. Sure, it threw some shade here or there to try to place its evolution a foot above Tesla’s. Perhaps that fooled some people, while it surely didn’t fool others, but much more important than that is that the company has studied Tesla and is trying to be flexible, innovate, and evolve quickly in order to try to maintain its position on top of the world’s auto market (in terms of sales). The journalists recognized the similarities, felt confident getting up and asking questions about other puzzle pieces that were lacking or didn’t match Tesla’s example, and Mr. Stackmann politely and graciously answered the questions to — I think — honestly explain where the company thought it was smart to copy Tesla and where the company thought it was smart to do something else — without mentioning “Tesla.”

In the end, we’ll see how the automaker’s approach serves the German giant. We’ll also see if the departures from Tesla’s path are smart or are strategic mistakes. To me, though, VW’s new focus is long-delayed (very long-delayed) leadership, the kind of honest leadership that does not pretend to invent the wheel but instead learns from prior leaders. And the good news, as Maarten insightfully shows us, is that it will push less thoughtful, less humble, less ambitious, less in-need-of-a-brand-revival fossil automakers to follow the growing excitement down electric avenue.

About the Author

Maarten Vinkhuyzen Grumpy old man. The best thing I did with my life was raising two kids. Only finished primary education, but when you don’t go to school, you have lots of time to read. I switched from accounting to software development and ended my career as system integrator and architect. My 2007 boss got two electric Lotus Elise cars to show policymakers the future direction of energy and transportation. And I have been looking to replace my diesel cars with electric vehicles ever since.

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Volvo’s Polestar 2 with Android Automotive is how all car software should be designed

The native Android Auto saga has a long and winding road, but we’re finally approaching the finish line. Google’s custom-built software for automobiles, now called Android Automotive OS and not to be confused with standard Android Auto mirrored from your smartphone, was first announced a couple of years back as a kind of compromise with… Continue reading Volvo’s Polestar 2 with Android Automotive is how all car software should be designed

Mercedes-Benz EQC, VW ID 3, FCA emissions boost Tesla: Today’s Car News

Tesla Model Y – introduction, Hawthorne CA, March 2019
Electric cars are starting to roll out from German automakers. Volkswagen gave a name to its new electric hatchback, and started taking orders. And Mercedes-Benz rolled the first electric EQC SUV off its assembly line in Germany. Details emerged of Fiat Chrysler's deal with Tesla to share emissions credits. All this and more on Green Car Reports.

Volkswagen opened its order banks for its first of a new generation of electric cars, the ID 3 electric hatchback, albeit only in Europe.

Mercedes-Benz also launched its new EQC electric SUV in Europe, with the first example rolling off the assembly line this week.

The emissions deal between Tesla and FCA announced last month could be worth a surprising amount to Tesla's bottom line.

And in our latest Twitter poll, most readers reported realizing the full amount of the federal tax credit if they bought an electric car last year. A sizable minority, however, didn't.

Google is revamping its Android Auto driving interface to give it a cleaner look, more flexibility, and simpler operation.

Finally, BMW says it will roll out a fleet of 500 fully-self-driving SUVs based on its iNext electric SUV concept, in 2021.

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Volkswagen offers pre-booking for the first time

ID.3 to come with ranges from 330 to 550 kilometers (WLTP) and starting price of under €30,000 in Germany Exclusive pre-booking special edition ID.3 1ST with comprehensive equipment limited to 30,000 vehicles ID.3 1ST with range of 420 km (WLTP), at a starting price of less than €40,000 in Germany Including charging of electric power… Continue reading Volkswagen offers pre-booking for the first time

First member of the ID. family is called ID.3

With immediate effect, potential customers can register for an exclusive special edition of the ID.3 , shown here in camouflage. Start of the new all-electric family will be in compact class Third major chapter in the history of the brand’s success ID. stands for intelligent design, identity and visionary technologies Months before its official world… Continue reading First member of the ID. family is called ID.3

Electrify America releases new pricing plans and mobile app

Electrify America DC fast chargers in Gulfport, Mississippi
A new debate is raging in the electric-car and charging communities: Whether electric-car drivers should pay for charging like gas, by the kilowatt-hour; or like parking, by the minute.

Electrify America, which has been firmly in the latter camp, released new pricing plans last week that takes a few steps toward the former.

With chargers getting faster all the time, it may make less sense to charge by the minute. Instead, the company will charge users for the time connected, yet also according to the charge rate, to help off-set the added costs of higher powered charging stations.

DON'T MISS: Electrify America turns on first 350-kw fast charger in California

Electric cars that can charge at rates charge faster than 125 kilowatts—about the speed of a Tesla Supercharger up until now—will pay the highest rates. The next highest will be cars that charge between 76 and 125 kw, and standard rates will apply to cars at 75 kw or less—about the speediest DC fast charges for most existing cars that offer the technology.

Cars that can accept charge rates of 100, and 150 kw are beginning to arrive on the market. The Audi E-tron quattro is the first capable of charging at 150 kw, which equates to 160 miles in about 20 minutes.

Electrify America, a charging-network division of Volkswagen formed under a court decree as part of VW's legal settlement over diesel emissions cheating, is in the vanguard of installing these state-of-the-art fast chargers. All of Electrify America's highway DC fast chargers it has installed have chargers capable of 150 kw, and at least one charger at each of its stations is a 350-kw unit (often two).

Under the decree, the company is required to have 484 charging stations open in 42 states by the end of 2019, when it plans to have 2,000 chargers online, and will continue to open more through 2025.

READ MORE: Electrify America lays out plans for second round of chargers in California

As faster-charging cars roll out, the company plans to reduce its standard per-minute rates as well, from 30 to 35 cents per minute (depending on the location) to 24 to 28 cents per minute, the company announced at an event at its headquarters in Virginia last week.

Drivers will still pay $1 to initiate a charging session and up to 40 cents per minute for parking after their charge is complete.

Those rates will be set according to different membership levels, which the company also announced at an event at its headquarters last week. The corresponding subscription plans mirror those of other charging networks, although Electrify America is required by its court decree to have credit-card readers that will allow any EV driver to initiate a charge.

CHECK OUT: One-step Plug&Charge coming to (Electrify) America

The first plan, called the “Electrify America Pass,” will include the mandatory $1 session fee. Users who sign up for the “Electrify America Pass +” for $4 a month, will get lower charging rates and additional discounts.

To help drivers keep track of that, the company also introduced a new app—as if EV drivers need yet another app to find and keep track of charging on their cell phones. While there are several more universal apps that will help drivers find accessible and compatible charging stations beyond a single network, the Electrify America app provides additional services such as tracking your charging session and notifications when the charge rate slows down (as apps from other networks already do.)

Electrify America calls the point at which the charge rate slows down, because the battery can no longer accept such fast charging without damage, the “bulk charge.”

Electrify America mobile app

Electrify America also says that the app will be able to upload users' payment info to initiate a charging session. In January, the company laid out plans to adopt the ISO's 15118 Plug&Charge standard which will transmit payment data via the car as soon as it's plugged in, but this announcement didn't further those plans.

The company said more specific rate details will be revealed at the end of May.