Voltswagen
No, we didn't come up with that one. Voltswagen was the actual new name (for about 24 hours) that automotive giant Volkswagen Group announced for their US subsidiary this week, in a bid to promote the company's renewed focus on electric vehicles and its new all-electric SUV.
Initially leaked as an upcoming April Fools joke, the name change was later confirmed on official VW corporate channels, before company spokesman Mark Gillies said on Tuesday that the statement was indeed an early April Fool’s Day joke. For a company found guilty of lying in a big way about emissions (Dieselgate), this was a high-risk gag and the delivery was poor.
Joke or not (we actually don't mind the name), VW Group is a lot more serious about its ambitions for electric vehicles. Last year, between the company's 12+ brands (full list of them here) the group delivered around 230,000 all-electric vehicles. That might only be around 2% of Volkswagen Group's total vehicle deliveries, but it is already almost half of Tesla's sales.
The road ahead
VW Group expects to spend €35bn ($41bn) on electric mobility over the next 5 years. With 12 individual brands to manage there's a decent chance they mess something up as they transition to electric, but even accounting for some serious execution risk, that kind of investment could see Volkswagen Group become the biggest EV seller in the world.
