Back in the late 50s, Wilhelm Karmann had the inside track in Wolfsburg. His Osnabrück company built the Beetle convertible and the Karmann Ghia (a.k.a. “Typ 14”) for Volkswagen. Rubbing shoulders with Volkswagen engineers and designers, Karmann knew early what others didn’t know: He knew the plans for the notchback VW 1500 “Typ 3”. Karmann shared the secret with the Ghia designers in Turin. Luigi Segre, head of the studio, could not control his excitement. (Read More…)
Yesterday, Porsche went through more mood swings in a single day than a manic depressive in three months. In the morning, Munich’s Süddeutsche Zeitung, usually well clued into high level auto gossip in Germany, had the good news that the public prosecutor in Stuttgart had dropped most of the investigation into former Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and former CFO Holger Härter. Supposedly, no evidence of share price manipulation was found. With that out of the way, the formal amalgamation of Porsche into Volkswagen could now progress at full speed, said the paper. However, they were misinformed. (Read More…)
The launch of the new Golf Cabriolet reminded me of a piece of Volkswagen lore: The convertible that never was. A few calls to the Volkswagen History Department (now called “Volkswagen Classic”) later, here is the story: (Read More…)
Ever since Volkswagen bought not quite 20 percent of Suzuki a little more than a year ago, industry observers said: “Now what?” To this day, the couple remains childless. Lately, there have been rumors that the impatient German side is pushing for offsprings, whereas the Japanese side stays chaste. Now finally, there might be results – if India’s Economic Times has the correct information. (Read More…)
Forget MegaCity. At the Geneva Motorshow, BMW will launch a new sub-brand that stands for low-emission vehicles and a new venture capital company. The brand will also remind people of the initially very controversial iDrive. Or the iPhone. (Read More…)
How many people do you think called their neighborhood Rolls Royce dealer and asked: “Do you have a plug-in Phantom?” Never mind. BMW-owned Rolls Royce shows one anyway at the Geneva Autoshow. Don’t worry, they don’t really mean it, it’s a prototype only. (Read More…)
No interview with a leader of the automotive industry is complete without the requisite question about electric plans. Porsche CEO Matthias Müller engineered a trick answer: (Read More…)
Porsche’s Wolfsburg-raised Porsche CEO Matthias Müller knows how to fan the flames. He’s not afraid of playing China against the U.S.A. A month ago, he dropped a hint to German media that Porsche could start production in China, or if that doesn’t work out, somewhere in “North America”. Chinese press went monkeyexcrement over the possibility of a Made in China Porsche. When they were all hot and bothered, tease Müller told China’s First Financial Daily that “Porsche currently has no such plans.” How do they put it so succinctly in China? “Aiya!”
Don’t cry for Porsche, China, Müller is at it again. (Read More…)
Visitors of the Geneva International Motor Show will be able to lay their sweaty palms on the facelifted version of Volkswagen’s pocket-Touareg, the Tiguan. The Touareg’s smaller sibling has been a surprising success, with 572,000 units delivered worldwide so far.
Volkswagen prides itself of having “the only SUV in its class that can be ordered in two different versions: one for on-road use and one specially tuned for off-road driving.” (Read More…)
Volkswagen had unannounced visitors last week. German police raided eight offices in four German cities to secure evidence in a big corruption scandal, the Munich newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports. According to the paper, managers of Deutsche Telekom had attempted to land a several hundred million Euro contract from Volkswagen by extending the sponsorship contract for the Wolfsburg soccer club VFL Wolfsburg. (Read More…)
It’s not out yet, and it won’t be before the end of the year, but Opel is already flogging the Euro-version of the Volt, the Ampera, as the perfect cop car. Main selling point: It’s a veritable multi mission vehicle. “Whether emission free on patrol, or silent during undercover surveillance, or fast and persistent when in hot pursuit – the Opel Ampera is the ideal police cruiser,” brags Opel, which appears to humor AutoBild. (Read More…)
While EVs are slowly, very slowly – catching on would be exaggerated, people are starting to think about the finer points. For instance: Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids are powered by high-voltage batteries of up to 400 volts, possibly more. What happens if one crashes and first responders have to attack the vehicle with power cutters? Will the responder die from electrical shock? This is a hot topic amongst first responders, right up there with dealing with explosive airbags, belt tensioners and other surprises. (Read More…)
Back in October, a firm called DBM Energy announced that an Audi A2 fitted with one of its “alpha-polymer” (lithium-metal-polymer) batteries would drive 600km without stopping to recharge or swap batteries, a claim that caused TTAC’s Martin Schwoerer (and others) to sit up and take notice. Schowerer noted
There is nothing new under the sun. You can expect battery capacity-per-weight-unit to expand by around 10% per decade, by incremental improvement. Maybe more. Don’t put your money or stake your rep on anything supposedly revolutionary. There is no way a small four-seater electric can do 600 KM non-stop with one set of batteries (with a $500k fuel cell system: yes, but that’s something else).
Then, days later, the trip was made, and DBM’s battery was hailed as having powered the “Miracle of Berlin.” Of course, Schwoerer pointed out that there were a number of unresolved issues with the stunt, including
DBM Energy GmbH is a mailbox company.
DBM’s website states as contact a non-registered entity named DBM Headquarters, which is located in a smallish office building. In that office building, there are several small-sounding firms such as a long-term storage company, a fire-extinguisher company, and a “battery-service” company.
When companies with no reputation defy the expectations of everyone in the EV business, skepticism is going to take hold. Especially when the car in question burns to a crisp shortly after its record breaking trip.
Volkswagen as a whole only registered a seven percent rise in the U.S.A., underperforming the market in January. The Volkswagen brand did even worse (+4.2 percent ). Don’t measure Volkswagen worldwide with a U.S. yardstick. A global Metermaß must be applied to the world’s third largest automaker. By that measure, the Volkswagen passenger cars brand surprises with an unexpected jump in January. (Read More…)
Remember 2009? Luxury vehicles were unsalable. People did not have to money to buy them. Those who did have the money did not want to be seen in one. Makers that were heavy on luxury were put on death watch. (Not by this site. It monitored the vital signs of more mundane makes and their makers.)
How things have changed. (Read More…)
Recent Comments