The Volkswagen I.D. has been the star in this month’s Paris motor show. It wasn’t yet ready for sale at the time but the car company promised to have something like it available by the year 2024. It will be a record-breaking electrically driven concept car with a range of 600km on a charge according to European standards. By the year 2025, VW expects to have an updated version of it wherein it allows the car to drive itself.
It is also interesting to note that this vehicle had been launched with a flawed history. Volkswagen had been found guilty of some corporate wrong doing on a huge scale about a year ago. It has been involved with fraud together with Dieselgate. Because of the grievousness of this conduct, a large number of the company’s executives had left the enterprise which proved the company’s dark secrets.
Hence, Volkswagen wants people to know that this electrically powered car is a sign of a new beginning for the enterprise. They are wiping their slate clean this time. However, this change just couldn’t come so easily.
It is not the unmasking of the diesel fraud that motivated Volkswagen to venture into EV’s. The company had already been making an electric Golf and an electric SUV was already thought of for production with Audi in 2018. Dieselgate had generated in VW a team of free-thinking people who are willing to explore new possibilities and ready to employ fresh, new ways of operating a car manufacturing business.
Even so, VW still has to compete with many other car companies which are more advanced than they are in providing prototypes of these types of vehicles. The I.D. is rather already late in the market. VW may be proud of its impressive features but the time of its release of the I.D. is rather far off. There already are several EV’s taking a toll in the markets worldwide.
Tesla is said to release its Model 3 in 2017 which is likely have a 400km charging range. General Motors will be selling the Chevy Bolt a few months from now. By 2024, GM shall have been able to make battery improvements that matches VW’s 600km target.
There are several other carmakers which had already started developing their own EV models. Even Mercedes had launched the idea of its first purpose-built EV, a crossover of Tesla’s Model X. Finally, Nissan second – generation Leaf will already be widely known long before Volkswagen will launch I.D. in 2024.
Volkswagen may be able to do an excellent job with their first EV but they could no longer claim to be the pioneers of this revolution in the car industry. The idea of electrically powered cars had long been started ten years ago. It is no longer extraordinary to see your neighbor driving an electric vehicle these days.
