In the latest automotive news, Volkswagen has revealed that they are expecting a growth of demand for the fuel-saving technology and they are targeting the wealthy buyers with initial launches of plug-in hybrid versions of the Porsche Panamera coupe and the 918 Spyder sports car.
“Plug-in hybrids offer the best of the two worlds (of purely electric drives and combustion engines),” Rudolf Krebs said. “This technology will soon be visible on the roads. That’s why we really want to get weaving.”
The car maker made an late entry into the hybrid technology, and they stick to their statement that, clean diesel is a better fuel-efficiency strategy than hybrids, which combine a combustion engine with battery-powered electric propulsion. To mark this, i would like to highlight that, Toyota the world’s no. 1 car maker, introduced the Prius hybrid compact vehicle in 1997, 13 years before VW’s Touareg hybrid SUV came to market in 2010, and started delivering a Prius plug-in version this year, so this itself shows the time they took to absorb the technology. The VW group also wants to make sure that the makes they come out with, should travel longer distances on battery power than ordinary hybrids and that they can recharge in public.
“This is a long-term trend that can no longer be reversed,” Krebs said, noting that VW will commit a “considerable” amount of over 7 billion euros of annual spending on research and development to electric mobility. “The planned offensive on plug-in hybrids will become a core element of our future strategy.”
The VW group plans to roll out plug-in hybrid versions of its best selling Golf hatchback in 2014 and the Passat model, flanked by the Audi Q7 SUV, A3 compact and the Porsche Cayenne SUV, according to Krebs. The Audi A6 sedan and A8 flagship model will follow in subsequent years. And this really could be a wise move for VW as research firm IHS Automotive research suggests that by 2018 plug-in hybrid car sales will soar more than eight times to 960,644 units.
Stay tuned for more updates and news on Speedlux.
