Photo: Volkswagen
The day Elon Musk announced the release date for the Model 3, Volkswagen also had something to say about its electric goals, even though it was all a little less palpable.
Volkswagen has been quite open about where it sees the future of the brand, and it would seem it's in the EV segment. The Wolfsburg-based company is looking to come up with around 30 new battery-powered models by 2025, and also become the world's number one electric vehicle seller in just three years.
Ambitious, to say the least, but nobody doubts that if somebody as big as the Volkswagen Group - and with the resources that are still available despite the Dieselgate fiasco - put everything it has toward achieving a goal, it would have no problem reaching it. The thing is we're not entirely convinced the Germans are as invested in making EVs as they claim.
Now, Volkswagen issued a press release talking about the Volkswagen Group Research, the company's "global innovation network" that is a "visionary, trend scout and technology driver." The release also talks about the importance of internal combustion engines, saying that both gasoline and diesel units "will continue to retain pivotal importance for the foreseeable future."
However, VW claims this Group Research will focus on new technologies, meaning it will deal with autonomous driving, alternative powertrains, and alternative mobility solutions. Boring and predictable, but the company also released a pair of images showing the car it uses to test its EV technologies.
Named the Gen.E, it appears to be Golf-sized and also bears some similarities to the successful model's styling. For a mere test bed for new technologies, it sure looks like the designers gave a lot of thought to its appearance. Whether we should look for details for the next Golf or the first all-new electric model is anyone's guess, but it sure seems like this could be a direction Volkswagen might go in.
In this particular situation, the Gen.E is used to showcase a mobile charging robot - essentially an autonomous battery on wheels that can move around through a car park or a garage, sniff out EVs that need replenishing and stick its arm into their charging port for the juices to flow. This way any spot in a car park would have access to a charging port, removing the need for EV-dedicated bays or, indeed, for EV owners to vacate them once the charging was done.
The Gen.E dropped out of nowhere, and Volkswagen doesn't seem to make too big of a deal about it. That could mean there's nothing to it - it's just a body on a test vehicle chassis that's styled to look like a Volkswagen. On the other hand, it could also hint at something much more important than this.
Ambitious, to say the least, but nobody doubts that if somebody as big as the Volkswagen Group - and with the resources that are still available despite the Dieselgate fiasco - put everything it has toward achieving a goal, it would have no problem reaching it. The thing is we're not entirely convinced the Germans are as invested in making EVs as they claim.
Now, Volkswagen issued a press release talking about the Volkswagen Group Research, the company's "global innovation network" that is a "visionary, trend scout and technology driver." The release also talks about the importance of internal combustion engines, saying that both gasoline and diesel units "will continue to retain pivotal importance for the foreseeable future."
However, VW claims this Group Research will focus on new technologies, meaning it will deal with autonomous driving, alternative powertrains, and alternative mobility solutions. Boring and predictable, but the company also released a pair of images showing the car it uses to test its EV technologies.
Named the Gen.E, it appears to be Golf-sized and also bears some similarities to the successful model's styling. For a mere test bed for new technologies, it sure looks like the designers gave a lot of thought to its appearance. Whether we should look for details for the next Golf or the first all-new electric model is anyone's guess, but it sure seems like this could be a direction Volkswagen might go in.
In this particular situation, the Gen.E is used to showcase a mobile charging robot - essentially an autonomous battery on wheels that can move around through a car park or a garage, sniff out EVs that need replenishing and stick its arm into their charging port for the juices to flow. This way any spot in a car park would have access to a charging port, removing the need for EV-dedicated bays or, indeed, for EV owners to vacate them once the charging was done.
The Gen.E dropped out of nowhere, and Volkswagen doesn't seem to make too big of a deal about it. That could mean there's nothing to it - it's just a body on a test vehicle chassis that's styled to look like a Volkswagen. On the other hand, it could also hint at something much more important than this.
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