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24 september 2018 17:46 |
VW Neo laatste nieuwsjes en details
De belangrijkste details...
Citaat:
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/volksw...electric-hatch
Volkswagen I.D. Neo: latest details on VW's 2019 electric hatch
17 Sep, 2018 4:15 pm James Brodie John McIlroy
Volkswagen's first electric I.D. car will go on sale in 2019 with three versions offering different ranges
Volkswagen will launch its forthcoming I.D. hatchback with a range of three battery capacities, it has emerged - and the firm is setting ambitious sales targets for the electric sub-brand of 100,000 cars per year in 2020 and 10 times that figure just five years later.
As revealed by Auto Express late last year, the first I.D. will be a five-door hatchback roughly the same size as a current Golf - but using the all-new MEB platform’s unusually long wheelbase to offer the same interior space as a Passat.
VW has now confirmed more details of the platform and how it will be rolled out when the I.D. hatch (codenamed Neo internally, although there’s no confirmation on whether that badge will be used in production) goes on pre-sale before the end of 2019.
Christian Senger, VW’s Head of Product Line for E-Mobility, told Auto Express, “We will have three different ranges of I.D. hatchback, to allow for people with different budgets. The entry-level car will have a WLTP range of 330km (205 miles), and it will also have more limited performance. If people want a faster car then I don’t want them coming back after three months telling me that it’s fast but that the range is too short. So if you want a fast car, you’ll need a bigger battery - simple.”
Auto Express understands that the most modest I.D. hatch will get a 48kWh battery and that it will be available for the price of a well-specced diesel Golf - or around £27,500 after the UK government’s plug-in vehicles grant is applied.
Senger added, “For the mid-spec, we have actually exceeded our target, which was 400km (250 miles). It’s more than that - closer to 450 (280 miles). And we’re still finalising what the range-topping battery capacity will be.”
The first details of the new MEB platform show that it has a relatively long wheelbase on even the I.D. hatchback - around 2.83 metres, or more than 20cm longer than a current five-door Golf’s. The car will have a charging point at the rear of the driver’s side in the UK, and it will offer two forms of AC charging - 7.2kW and 11kW - plus DC charging at up to 125kW, the maximum that can be achieved with the car’s 400-volt electrical systems.
Senger said buyers should expect a less complex buying or leasing process with I.D. cars - not least because the company has removed many of the intricacies of combustion-engined line-ups in a bid to raise economies of scale and cut costs. “There will still be enough versions of I.D.,” he told us, “but it will be much less complex, yes. You’ll still be able to choose different colours and specs of seats, but you won’t get the thousands of permutations that come with, say, a combustion-engined Golf. Complexity costs, and you have to remember that our goal with I.D. is Electric for All.”
The prototype platform shown at VW’s launch event revealed predictably short overhangs for a car that doesn’t have a combustion engine or an exhaust - and a multi-link suspension arrangement at the rear to accommodate the electric motor. I.D. models will be able to be offered with a second electric motor at the front, for four-wheel drive, but there are no plans at present to make this available on the initial hatchback model. It will be introduced, therefore, on the SUV that’s likely to follow within a year of its launch.
The chassis also includes a large area ahead of the dashboard - space freed up by the lack of a combustion engine - that VW will use to install a projection system for an augmented reality navigation display. This was previewed on the original I.D. concept but the bare chassis indicates that it is likely to make production, at least as an option. There’s also a gap where an induction charging panel could be installed, as and when the technology becomes available.
The I.D. will be VW’s first permanently online vehicle, allowing a range of services to be offered to customers through the cloud, and over-the-air updates to be installed in the same way as Tesla does with its cars. Only three of the car’s electronic control units (ECUs) are unable to be updated wirelessly.
Senger revealed that VW had even considered installing one set of hardware and allowing the user to activate or deactivate features via smartphone apps but he said, “We did the numbers and it was still too expensive. You can’t just put heated seats in every car and then charge some people for them; the unit cost is too much.”
VW confirmed today that the I.D. hatch will be built at its Zwickau factory, and stated that it is investing €1.2billion (£1.1billion) in the plant. The company says that the factory will be able to produce 1,500 I.D. cars per day, although Senger said that this full capacity wouldn’t come on stream until 2021.
VW says that across the wider group - so including its own brand plus SEAT, Audi and Skoda - it expects 27 pure-electric MEB models to be on sale by the end of 2022. And that in total, 10 million vehicles will be based on the first wave of the MEB platform, which has been conceived from the ground up to accommodate batteries and electric motors, with no compromise for combustion-engined variants.
The company has also detailed how other production sites in Germany are being adapted for MEB. The battery systems factory in Braunschweig will expand to capacity for half a million battery packs per year, while the facilities at Salzgitter (rotors) and Kassel (electric motors) will also receive fresh investment. VW says it plans to spend €1.3billion (£1.2billion) across these three sites.
VW has revealed that a prototype production version of the car is currently under preparation in its ‘Pilot Hall’ in Wolfsburg, and that it will soon begin tests at the firm’s top-secret Ehra-Lessien proving ground in eastern Germany. The car should be revealed in full in the final quarter of 2019, although UK sales aren’t likely until early 2020.
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