VOLKSWAGEN Group CEO Herbert Diess has conveyed his want to see the model produce an electrical pick-up truck throughout a latest “Ask Me Something” dwell chat session hosted by Reddit.
Along with revealing added capabilities for the ID4 compact crossover, Mr Diess mentioned the significance of Lidar (gentle detection and ranging) within the growth of autonomous-driving capabilities, the prospects of battery-electric Audi and Bentley limousines, and even mooted the return of a Beetle- or Kombi-styled “emotional automobile” based mostly on the Group’s MEB electrical platform.
Redditors submitted greater than 1000 questions for Mr Diess to reply throughout final week’s “Ask Me Something” session, however his responses have been extraordinarily restricted.
Mr Diess’ offhand remark about the opportunity of a Ford Ranger-based electrical Amarok, or perhaps a bigger VW-badged pick-up – more likely to badged because the Atlas EV – to problem the F-150 Lightning or Chevrolet Silverado EV, piqued the curiosity of customers signed into the dwell chat.
For now, the comment proves nothing, besides to show that the Volkswagen Group is a minimum of open to the concept of competing within the electrified full-size pick-up house.
Ford Motor Firm, whose Ranger utility will share its platform with the upcoming Volkswagen Amarok, mentioned final 12 months that it was contemplating an electrified model of its ute.
On the time, Ranger chief engineer Ian Foston mentioned the ute was “future proofed” for hybridisation – and full electrification, which raises the chance {that a} Ranger Lightning will come to fruition.
Given Ford’s sizable funding within the electrification of its fleet – and Volkswagen’s partnership inside the Ranger program – it’s not inconceivable that an Amarok EV could also be within the works.
Throughout the session, Mr Diess additionally revealed particulars of a future over-the-air replace for the model’s ID.4 compact crossover, which can achieve extra onboard capabilities over the approaching months.
Mr Diess wrote that the ID.4 was slated to obtain Plug & Cost and Auto Maintain performance, in addition to higher-capacity on-board charging capabilities as a part of the software program replace. He added that he had appeared ahead to the graduation of ID.4 manufacturing in america (Volkswagen’s manufacturing facility in Chattanooga not too long ago got here on-line).
When questioned about electrical merchandise spanning a number of manufacturers inside the Group, Mr Diess mentioned that each Audi and Bentley have been creating battery-electric giant sedans and that VW was contemplating electric-powered variations of what he referred to as “emotional automobiles”, such because the Beetle.
He flagged the Kombi-inspired ID.Buzz microbus because the model’s “first precedence” within the space, earlier than including that “many different emotional automobiles are potential on our scalable MEB platform”. VW is anticipated to indicate a manufacturing model of its all-electric ID.Buzz on March 9.
When requested what he thought the automotive business would appear to be 25 years from now, Mr Diess was circumspect, believing developments in lidar know-how and autonomous driving methods would rid the world of vehicular collisions.
“Twenty-five years could be very troublesome to foretell. Developments in know-how are coming quick. My guess is that each one automobiles will be capable of drive autonomously and will probably be very secure (as a result of) there’ll in all probability be no extra accidents – in any respect. They’ll be emissions-free and really snug automobiles that can take you wherever you need to go and everytime you need to go,” he mentioned.
“Nonetheless, there will probably be valuable manufacturers for various buyer preferences, and automobiles will stay an important technique of transport. However completely secure, handy, and sustainable.”
