During the last edition of The world of carsApart from French manufacturers and mainly Renault, only Chinese electric mobility brands occupied the Paris exhibition center. today, World Car Championship 2024 Thanks to the rise of electric vehicles, there has been a renaissance, and a major group like Volkswagen cannot afford to ignore the playing field where Chinese brands are growing rapidly. With its Skoda, Audi and especially VW brands, it should also be noted that there are many new products on the group’s stands.
At Volkswagen, the “Tayron”, which replaces the “Tiguan Allspace”, is the center of attention. With its seven-seat capacity, SUVSUV Positioned as a direct competitor to the Peugeot 5008. The vehicle, 4.74 meters long and 2.79 meters wide, is available in a HybridHybrid Rechargeable with a 100% electric range of about 100 km.
An electric Golf GTi?
But for the future, Volkswagen is banking on the “ID GTi Concept.” A kind of neo-retro of the famous Golf GTI like Renault did with its R5 and R4. But the big difference is that VW for its part has never stopped producing the Golf…. Obviously it’s no longer a question of injection with a 100% electric car, but a question of the “i”, as ” IntelligenceIntelligence ” Still, the famous acronym immediately brings to mind the spirit of the brand’s famous Golf. In other words, a mix between a city car and a sports car. The concept includes the special sporting characteristics of the Golf GTI. Equipped with five PortsPortsThis electric sports car is 4.10 meters long, 1.84 meters wide and 1.5 meters high. It’s currently a concept, but it looks attractive enough that we’d like to see it commercialized.
Additionally, in total, Volkswagen plans to launch eight new electric models by 2027. The brand also took the opportunity to present the “ID.3 Pure”, a car with 388 km of autonomy and sold for 27,900 euros after the environmental bonus.
Q6 e-tron SUV at Audi
Audi is one of the Group’s brands Auto World. The brand showcases its electric Q6 e-tron with a range of 639 km. It is available with four engines ranging from 251 hp to 387 hp in the Quattro version and even reaches 489 hp for the SQ6 model. This large SUV is spacious and can accommodate one. VolumeVolume of 1,529 litres, once the bench seat is folded. The brand is also introducing its new “Thermal A5”, “Electric A6” and “Thermal Q5”. Additionally, Skoda, another brand of the group, offers “Elroq”, a 100% electric compact SUV measuring 4.49 meters in length.
On the occasion of this strong comeback of the group Auto World, Futura met Xavier Chardon, CEO of France. He gave us the vision of Volkswagen.AutomobileAutomobile of the future.
Futura: You weren’t present during the Paris Motor Show in 2022. Since then, Chinese brands have established themselves in the field of electric automobiles. Is this a reason for your presence?
Xavier Chardon : If the Volkswagen Group did not exist, it was precisely because the world was leaving. A global pandemicA global pandemic Of Corona VirusCorona Virus And that after those two difficult years, no great new progress was made in any department but at half-mast. Today, across all stands, we are offering around twenty new products. And then, the show has also become an opportunity to sign sales contracts with viewers.
As for the Chinese invasion. The matterThe matter In electric vehicles, this is not the first time that the group’s brands have fallen victim to emerging competition. This was already the case with the entry of Japanese and then Korean brands into the market. But unlike the Chinese brands, we have an image that was not built in a few years and vehicles that have a well-established reputation. The group is the largest European automobile manufacturer and as far as electrics are concerned, we have allocated 122 billion of the 180 billion euro investment for research and development over the next five years. It also happens through constructionconstruction Gigafactories with our subsidiary PowerCo to produce batteries for our electric vehicles. This huge amount shows our commitment to electrify our borders, without giving up, on thermal models outside the European Union, which represent a large market, especially in the United States.
Futura: What is the group’s vision for the car of the future?
Xavier Chardon : For Volkswagen, the future will consist not only of producing electric vehicles, but also of decarbonizing their production as much as possible and achieving their environmental impact throughout their life cycle. To do this, we aim to be 100% neutral. BroadcastingBroadcasting D CO2 For our production in Europe. It also involves material reuse, in other words RecyclingRecycling. Some elements and in particular PlasticPlastic Our new vehicles, for example, are made from plastic bottle materials recovered from the ocean. We also recycle the group’s old models to reintegrate them into new productions. This includes the use of vegetable leather for the upholstery and seats. The electric car of the future must also be financially accessible. To reduce the cost of the group’s electric vehicles, they will be based on a platform known as SSP.Scalable Systems Platform))it takes the advantages of the existing platform with more modularity. It will also evolve towards autonomous driving.
In the future, we are also banking on batteries. solidsolid. Batteries that we will manufacture ourselves. We will also ensure their recycling. All brands will benefit from this. The PackPack The batteries we manufacture will also be standardized to reduce production costs. Looking to the near future, a concept like the “ID GTi Concept” is a good example of our vision of electric evolution.