Volkswagen Moving Forward With New EV Strategy

Volkswagen Electric Microbus Concept (Credit: Volkswagen )

Volkswagen has a serious image issue, thanks to its propensity to keep drawing out the whole Dieselgate crisis. Sales are down, dealers are frustrated and it many members of the public view the company with great suspicion.

» Related: Volkswagen Golf R 400 is Officially a No-Go

Analysts say that to overcome these challenges, Volkswagen needs to strike out in a new direction and become a big proponent of electric cars. While the automaker has produced a few electric models, they’ve mostly been compliance vehicles aimed at merely satisfying government requirements and nothing else. That seems to be changing.

Bloomberg just reported that VW is working on a flat battery pack design that, at the risk of sounding cliché, could very well be revolutionary for the company. While it’s probably going to take a lot of convincing that this isn’t some sleight of hand to get everyone to forget about the whole diesel emissions cheat device controversy, if Volkswagen seriously moves forward with this plan on a large scale it could turn things around in a huge way.

Plenty of modern electric cars have flat battery packs – that’s not the big news. What’s positive about the VW plan is it will apply them to shared vehicle architectures. That means possibly every Volkswagen model could have a fully-electric variant, a strategy that mirrors Volvo’s.

VW will also be showing up at CES 2016 with a new electric Microbus concept. It’s already creating a lot of buzz, which can only work to the company’s advantage.

This is all coming about as Volkswagen is slashing R&D spending. Some were concerned that the cutbacks would mean new fully-electric VW’s would be pushed back several years, but right now it appears that’s not the case.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding. This whole thing could just be Volkswagen trying to smooth things over, while not intending to really push forward with electric powertrain tech anytime soon. The real test will be to see what the company brings to market in the next three to four years.

If VW is serious, it’s making a move just in time. Quite a few competitors are entering the electric vehicle market in a big way, with the promise of decent selection for shoppers by 2020.