Big Plans: Volkswagen Vows To Build 22 Million E-Cars Over Next Decade

[ThunderBlade + 231]

German automaker Volkswagen said Tuesday it plans to ramp up its production of electric vehicles over the next ten years to 22 million and reduce its carbon footprint over vehicle life cycles by 30 percent, according to AP. Previously, the company said it would aim for 15 million. That was ambitious in itself given that it made fewer than 50,000 battery-only vehicles last year. The company is pivoting to electric vehicles as it seeks to comply with new limits on carbon dioxide emissions in Europe, and a push by China for more low-emission vehicles. The company also disclosed that operating profit at its core Volkswagen brand, one of 12, fell to 3.2 billion euros ($3.6 billion) from 3.3 billion last year as the company faced bottlenecks certifying vehicles under new emissions tests.

[pinto + 293]

That’s 22 million batteries that they have no idea how to dispose of ! Go green.

[Pavel + 384]

VW? After originally criticizing Elon Musk and saying electric cars had no place in today's society yet ...  
1. Lied about the emissions. 
2. Said electric cars would fail. 
3. Tries best to erase out memory

[50 shades of black + 254]

Just what the planet needs.

[damirUSBiH + 327]

Good. But will anybody buy them, after fraud with the emission test VW...

[rainman + 263]

They can do it but GM and Ford can’t.  Why?

[shadowkin + 584]

VaporWare said back in 2010 they'd be the leader in EVs in 2018

2018 came and went and Tesla, in 2 weeks, became the #1 selling BEV in Germany

[Oil_Engineer + 86]

7 hours ago, damirUSBiH said:

Good. But will anybody buy them, after fraud with the emission test VW...

If they make them cheap people will buy them.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

13 hours ago, 50 shades of black said:

Just what the planet needs.

Meanwhile, they will charge their cars primarily from natural gas and coal. 

[Okie + 83]

16 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

Meanwhile, they will charge their cars primarily from natural gas and coal. 

But even then, Ron, battery electric vehicles save energy. 

Consider this from https://cleantechnica.com/2018/03/10/electric-car-myth-buster-efficiency/

Quote

 

An electric motor typically is between 85% and 90% efficient. That means it converts that percentage of the electricity provided to it into useful work. The difference between the efficiency of the motor and the overall efficiency of an electric car is accounted for losses attributed to charging and discharging the battery and, for some charging (for some cars), converting AC to DC current and back again.

In a recent post for Quora, Brian Feldman, a robotics expert and entrepreneur, offered this explanation: “Consider the Tesla Model S, which has an available 85 kWh battery and a 265 mile range. Consider a similar gas-powered car, which gets 35 mpg. Gasoline contains about 33 kWh of energy per gallon. The Tesla uses 320 Wh/mile of energy (85 kWh/265 miles). The gas powered car uses 940 Wh/mile of energy (33 kWh/35 miles). Once the energy is on board (not counting the efficiency of the power generation, oil refining, or charging), the Tesla is using only about a third as much energy as the comparable gasoline-powered car.”

 

Another advantage of the battery electric car is that it does not burn energy (or very little) when sitting idle, such as at a stop light or in rush hour traffic; and the battery electric car recovers the energy from braking, which only hybrid vehicles do.  While coal and gasoline are more energy dense, they are far less efficient at converting that chemical energy into kinetic, or mechanical, energy.  I think the conversion rate of coal to electricity is around 40% or so.  Multiply 40% x 90% and you end up with about 36% overall, which is still more efficient than gasoline or diesel.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

1 hour ago, Okie said:

But even then, Ron, battery electric vehicles save energy. 

Consider this from https://cleantechnica.com/2018/03/10/electric-car-myth-buster-efficiency/

Another advantage of the battery electric car is that it does not burn energy (or very little) when sitting idle, such as at a stop light or in rush hour traffic; and the battery electric car recovers the energy from braking, which only hybrid vehicles do.  While coal and gasoline are more energy dense, they are far less efficient at converting that chemical energy into kinetic, or mechanical, energy.  I think the conversion rate of coal to electricity is around 40% or so.  Multiply 40% x 90% and you end up with about 36% overall, which is still more efficient than gasoline or diesel.

True, but the electricity has to be made from a generator or some kind or renewables. Natural gas does not require much processing. Good point though. There are regenerative braking and automatic off on stopping for ICE vehicles though. Not common yet. 

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

9 hours ago, Oil_Engineer said:

If they make them cheap people will buy them.

Ah, that's the thing, isn't it? Cheap but with a range of more than 20 miles. I'll enjoy watching them try and do it, certainly.

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

I'm going to miss VW.  I did a lot of work in my high school vocational days on the bug, and they were fun to customize.  Oh well.