At the start of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Volkswagen demonstrated how the group wants to quickly leave the diesel scandal behind and start into the future. For “the new Volkswagen”, this is one thing above all: fully networked.
The time could not have been more unfortunate: VW had secured - for a lot of money - the opening keynote of this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and just the day before the big speech ran the message about the ticker that the US government has sued the group because of the diesel issue. Before VW brand board member Herbert Diess could look to the future, the issue of emissions was once again in the center, including a new apology to the US customers and the somewhat vague outlook that you will solve the problem "in the year 2016" ,
Speaking on the good side of a scandal of this magnitude may seem euphemistic, but the Diesel Gate affair has also led to one of the greatest renewal processes the automotive industry has ever seen. After ten minutes of factual treatment of what happened, Diess looks ahead and speaks of nothing less than “the new Volkswagen”. The Group and its brands have enacted an all-round renewal, with which no stone should remain unturned and which will of course also be reflected in the future products of the brand.
The strategy that sounds like the reinvention of the automobile, on closer inspection, of course, is not much different from the competition and can be reduced to four key points: electric drive, maximum safety, autonomous driving and full networking. Future car models will need to be measured against these factors, with connectivity being the focus of attention at the world's largest multimedia exhibition. Many of the smartphone features that we use every day come on board, and the car, according to Diess, should become the "most important part of the Internet"; it will be in constant communication with both its occupants, other road users and its own home or office.
What the future should look like in concrete terms is demonstrated by VW at CES with two studies. The e-Golf Touch, a further development of last year's show car Golf R Touch, in which the brand presented an infotainment system with gesture control for the first time, is almost ready for series production. Apart from a few details, the 9,2-inch display from the all-electric Golf will go into series production this year as the top model - and completely dispense with conventional buttons, only a turn-push switch has remained. Everything that cannot be operated by voice - similar to Apple's Siri, the VW will in future react to the command "Hello Volkswagen" - or a hand movement can be reached via sensor fields. In addition, the new system offers two function tiles on the high-resolution screen, which can be assigned individual content, for example the radio control or the telephone function.
It is almost standard that all kinds of mobile phones can be connected via Apple CarPlay, Android Auto or MirrorLink. In the e-Golf Touch, however, they can also be charged wirelessly via induction at the front and rear. The show car is also already equipped with a new Type C USB port, which is to become the industry-wide standard in the future and can both transfer data much faster and allow noticeably shorter charging times. Another form of networking is electronic voice amplification, which is intended to improve communication between the first and second rows in the e-Golf Touch using a hands-free microphone in the front and loudspeakers in the rear.
The latter is hardly necessary in the second CES study, because the back guests in the 4,60 meter-long electric bus Budd-e (pronounced Buddy) will focus on the infotainment system. For example, every passenger can select their favorite music at home in an app, and these playlists are then combined in the car and accessed via a 34-sized screen in the lounge-like fond. The driver, on the other hand, sits in a futuristic cockpit with oversized displays, which he can make significantly more free than is possible with the system from the e-Golf Touch. Also, everything that happens behind the driver, appears on a display, classic exterior mirrors, the VW bus is no longer.
The antiquated steering column levers for turn signals and windscreen wipers seem almost out of place there, but perhaps this can also be controlled soon by voice: The doors are in the study at least by verbal order on. With a view to the future all-round networking, the Budd-e can be coupled, among other things, with the local fridge or the doorbell. So you can check while driving, if there is something left to eat in the house or in the case of a delay, the waiting visitor ever open the door. In addition, the Budd-e networked with the post office: he parked in the street, he can use parcel services as a mailbox and open with a special access code, a large drawer in the rear apron, in which the order can be stored.
And yes, the Budd-e can also drive: To get him off the mark, provide two electric motors (100 kW / 136 PS front, 125 kW / 170 PS rear) for propulsion, a 92,4 kilowatt-hour battery provides the power , That should suffice for 533 kilometers range and after VW conception the energy storage can be recharged in 15 minutes to 80 percent again. The technical basis for the Budd-e is the new modular electrification kit (MEB) which will be used in the future to design the body and interior design, package and drive characteristics of VW's electric cars. It will take a while for a vehicle à la Budd-e to hit the market, but by the end of the decade at the latest, Volkswagen wants to make the vision a reality. If the project "New Volkswagen" actually be implemented so quickly and smoothly, the diesel scandal would actually have had a good side.
