December 1: Electrifying VW

Smoky old VW and their amazing diesels. Hitting emissions targets that no one felt would be possible with Otto Diesel's legendary engine. Here's a company that built its reputation on the smelly and noisy old diesel. And you know what? They almost had us convinced that this was the motor of the future, until we found out that they spent more of their valuable time trying to fool the tests, than trying to solve the unsolvable.

Now the sun is setting on the VW diesel and those storage lots full of thousands upon thousands of unsellable Vdubs.........

What's a company caught out like this to do? Well, folks, VW didn't get to be the biggest car manufacturer on our little blue planet, by being completely dumb. No diesels, no problem. Seems like the world is looking to electric cars, so let's hook up our old Bavarian horse to that bandwagon. Recently VW has announced that by 2030 they will have eighty electric cars in the line up. In fact, they want every car line in their vast range to include an electric model. Impressive? Optimistic?

This might be another reason that Tesla is going to run into problems and that is that they won't be the only guys in town, apart from a few other electrics scattered around the various car manufacturers. No sir, VW is committing to an approximately eighty four billion dollar investment over the next few years. Get you head around that number if you can. VW is dead serious.

The first salvo in this electric war will be these three vehicles.........

.......a retro van, a small hatch and a sporty suv type. Not a bad start. The little van should appeal to young hipsters and nostalgic oldies alike, while the small hatch will make its mark in Europe and if they can make it as lovable as the Golf, well, watch out. Now to the real sales builder, in my somewhat humble opinion, the suv type vehicle, shown as a concept called the i.d.crozz (catchy?). Drop this on an suv lovin' North American public and stand back.

Great looking from every angle..........

........and to counter the Tesla X's gullwing back doors, VW has added a slider, which might be a first for anything other than a van.

If the diesel debacle was a mere hiccup to VW, although a rather costly one, the new electric strategy should push them speedily ahead. An interesting note is that VW hardly suffered sales wise from this cheating scandal. So mix in a huge respected car company, a enormous investment, an interesting product line and watch Tesla shrivel as VW grows. It will be an interesting battle.

Until next time........