VW: new electric concept will be as game-changing as the Beetle

8 years, 3 months ago - 18 September 2016, Autoblog
VW new electric concept teaser
VW new electric concept teaser
VW is going to use the Paris Motor Show to preview its shift towards a heavy emphasis on electric vehicles.

We learned a lot about the new concept and what it signifies earlier this week, and today VW released its first teaser images of the car. They show a rendered (or at least highly modified photograph) of a sleek, potentially Golf-ish car with lots of LEDs and a bit of lens flare for good measure.

As we heard earlier this week, VW is not being shy about what this concept might mean. The company sees this concept as, "an electric car for a new era," and an "iconic design study." The company that brought you the Beetle and the Golf believes that this new concept (and the following production version that will be based on the new modular electrification kit, known by its German acronym as MEB) will become as iconic as those vehicles. VW is promising that the MEB concept is, "as revolutionary as the Beetle was seven decades ago before it evolved into the world's best-selling car of the century. The concept car has the potential to make history with its completely new vehicle concept."

Of course, back at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, VW said it wanted to be the market leader in electric drive vehicles by 2018. While we're not quite at that deadline yet, the MEB is not going into production until late 2019 as a 2020 model year vehicle, so it's unlikely that VW's plans from six years ago will come to fruition. With a renewed focus on electromobility in the wake of a year of diesel cheat headlines, we'll see if VW can reach its new goals of selling 2-3 million electric cars a year by 2025.