German automaker Volkswagen said it was expanding its Chattanooga factory in Tennessee to make electric vehicle cells and battery packs in the United States, alongside assembling electric vehicles.

The company said it plans to break ground for a laboratory in Chattanooga to develop and test cells and battery packs for its upcoming car models assembled in the U.S., with the goal of a fully operational lab by spring 2021.

"A lot of auto companies will farm out the development and testing of batteries to another company, and some will actually do the work of developing and testing in-house. We are doing the latter," said Wolfgang Maluche, vice president of engineering, Volkswagen of America.

Volkswagen’s plan to produce its own cells and battery packs for electric vehicles in the United States follows an emissions scandal at the company, which admitted to using illegal software to cheat pollution tests in the country.

The scandal has cost Volkswagen 30 billion euros ($35.51 billion) in fines, penalties and vehicle buyback costs worldwide.

Insourcing electric vehicle cells and battery packs reinforces Volkswagen as one of the most ambitious traditional carmakers in the electric vehicle domain, Credit Suisse analyst Dan Levy said.

Last year, the carmaker said it would invest $800 million to build a new electric vehicle at its plant in Chattanooga.

A spate of news releases from Volkswagen this week show the company is pushing forward with the EV revolution and making significant upgrades to its manufacturing process. Unlike Tesla, which is building brand new factories, Volkswagen is retrofitting existing factories with the latest manufacturing technology, including artificial intelligence, to better manage the production process.


Credit: Volkswagen

In Hannover, the company took advantage of the traditional summer shutdown to reconfigure the factory where it produces many of its commercial vehicles to get ready for the next generation T6 van. [Note: I rode in one of these when I was in Germany last year for the start of production celebration for the ID.3 and it is an impressive vehicle — smooth, comfortable, and quiet.]

Dr Josef Baumert, VW board member for production and logistics says, “With the current measures we are systematically further implementing our strategy of automating and digitalizing production. We are completely remodelling the production facility in Hannover so that in future, in addition to our successful T 6.1 models, we are able to build two further vehicles here in one factory. As of next year the new Multivan as an internal combustion engine version and a hybrid, and ultimately our all-electric ID. BUZZ. A clear sign of our commitment to the future of this plant.”

The Multivan is due in 2021 and the ID. Buzz will enter production in 2022, Baumert says. Part of the changes include a new paint shop that can apply multiple paint colors to the T6, Multivan, and ID. Buzz, so the yellow and silver paint scheme seen on several concept vehicles should make it into production.

You might not think a small group of 9 people could make a difference when it comes to manufacturing cars, but just such a team, headed by Reda Jaber and Nicolas Hummel at the Volkswagen Smart.Production:Lab in Wolfsburg are doing precisely that. Their mission is to let people train artificial intelligence to evaluate optical data and detect errors rapidly and reliably. The system, called Computer Vision, currently checks boxes for completeness but many other production and logistics applications are possible. “The user interface is so simple that anyone can operate it and train the AI independently. You don’t have to be a computer scientist,” says Hummel. Over the next few years, Volkswagen expects Computer Vision applications to save the company tens of millions of euros.

The Wolfsburg Smart.Production:Lab team is working in cooperation with others in the Volkswagen Group. The software for Computer Vision is written in Wolfsburg. The Data Lab in Munich is concerned with improving neural networks, while the Software Development Center in Dresden tests the systems in practice and provides feedback. At the Porsche factory in Leipzig, AI systems check the labels attached to every car during production. AI checks the images in real time and provides feedback as to whether everything is in order.

Beginning next year, the application will be used at other locations using the Industrial Cloud which links all the units of the Volkswagen Group together. “Our preferred solution is an online offering from which each department can download the appropriate applications as if they were in a library,” says Reda Jaber.

The upcoming compact crossover from Volkswagen we’ve heard so much about is going to be called Taos, not Tarek or any other previously proposed name. It’s named after a tiny town in New Mexico that is currently home for about 6,000 residents. Volkswagen says this crossover will slot below the Tiguan in size, further expanding the breadth of VW’s crossover lineup.

“It was important to choose a name that really embodied the nature of the car and the town of Taos, New Mexico, was a perfect fit,” says Hein Schafer, Volkswagen of America's senior VP for product marketing and strategy. “It’s a small city that offers big things — from outdoor adventure to arts and design and great cuisine.”

Weirdly enough, there was a VW connection to the town of Taos before this car was named after it. John Muir, author of “How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step procedures for the Compleat Idiot”, lived in Taos. The book is a rite of passage for anyone who owns an old air-cooled VW. That same book was illustrated by artist Peter Aschwanden, who lived nearby. With that knowledge in mind, the name Taos feels much more natural to use.
VW released a few nearly useless teaser images and a quick video alongside this news. We grabbed the most revealing screen grabs from the video and put them in the gallery above, but there isn’t much going on that we can dissect. At this range, we can tell it’s a crossover, but not much else. The LEDs that extend far into the center of the grille remind us of the lights on the Kia Seltos, and the hood’s shape looks rugged and rough like the VW Atlas. We imagine the rest of the car will embody the same theme, especially now that the name suggests a rough-and-tumble nature.The whole car will be revealed on October 13, so we’re just under a month out from seeing the next new VW model to join the lineup.

I wouldn’t say that I hug trees, but I do like them an awful lot. I like shade, nuts, fruits, and leaf piles in the fall for my son. More broadly, I like the environment and do not want to cause harm if I can avoid it. If that means I have to let the engine revs drop a little slowly on a manual transmission equipped VW Golf, or most any modern manual car out there, then so be it. I’m not going to complain and neither should you.

The phenomenon is known as rev hang. Rev hang is a delay in engines revs decreasing when you lift off the throttle. It occurs on most modern internal combustion engines, but is more noticeable on manual transmission equipped cars because you are in complete control of shifting. And it’s annoying. The engine revs staying elevated makes quick upshifts less smooth, and downshifts clumsy.

But rev hang also plays an important role in keeping internal combustion engine’s emissions in check. And it all has to do with the stoichiometric ratio of air-to-fuel of 14.7:1. Douglas Skorupski, Volkswagen of America, Inc.'s powertrain strategy manager explains it this way.

“As you pull your foot off the throttle, what we are trying to prevent is a big hunk of air getting into the chamber without any fuel. If air gets in that way, when you do reapply throttle, it creates a lean condition (a higher than 14.7:1 air-to-fuel ratio), which generates nitrous oxides or NOx. By delaying the fuel cut-off in the cylinder, we get some fuel in there with the air to keep the mixture correct and avoid the lean condition and prevent the NOx from occurring.”

In literal terms, engineers delay fuel cut-off until several milliseconds after you completely lift your foot off of the throttle. Doing so adds enough fuel to keep the air from throwing off the chemical balance of clean combustion. And while it’s true that catalytic converters can reduce how much NOx leaves the tailpipe, we’re still much better off producing as little as possible in the first place. Turns out NOx is gnarly stuff.
Wolfram Wendt, the Manager of Quality Analysis at Volkswagen, has applied the method of rev hang for years to mitigate NOx in several VW engines. And his team is constantly refining the process in an effort to make it less intrusive. Engineers don’t like the way rev hang feels any more than we do.

And while it’s tough to completely avoid rev hang, you might well be making it worse, especially during quick shifts. “When you depress the clutch, make sure you completely release the throttle, 100 percent,” Wendt says, “If your foot rests on the throttle at all when you’re shifting, it exacerbates the problem. Even if you apply two-percent throttle, that’s enough to make the difference.”

Like all things in life, it’s important not to shift sloppy as you shift faster. I says this not just as an advocate of manual transmissions, but also an occasionally sloppy faster shifter. I, too, let my right foot hang a little too close to the pedal as I shift and sometimes probably do not lift off all the way. If you think your car’s rev hang is really bad, you might be the problem.
Because if you can live with a little rev hang, the standard Golf with a manual is a fantastic car to drive. Perhaps even more fun than the GTI. It’s better because it’s worse, of course. It goes back to the old cliché: it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. And, true enough, the Golf is slower, has less grip, and, indeed, less body control than a GTI.

But, critically, you get a progressive build-up to the limit and the feel is just as good. That means you get good feedback to inputs through your hands and backside. And you get to reach those limits more often. Even better, because tire grip is also low, it’s also pretty flat. If you go past it, the tires howl louder, but you stay on the road. These behaviors and body motions put the Golf one step closer to the beloved first generation GTI I drove earlier this summer.
Furthermore, I found the 1.4-liter turbo motor plenty peppy, with ample torque at lower engine speeds. Rev hang aside, the six-speed manual is an absolute gem. Throws are longer than a sports car’s, but also light and precise and easy to operate. It would fall a little flat on a racetrack, but it’s perfect for a spirited drive in the countryside.
Top it off with a fairly small footprint, a comfortable interior and plenty of utility and it proves to be a great all-rounder. And the added engagement of the manual transmission is the lynch pin of the whole package.

Don’t complain about rev hang. And don’t ever complain about manuals. Love them. Cherish them. Buy them!

Volkswagen has revealed plans to set aside more plants for EV production in the coming decade, amid a greater electric-vehicle development push. Specifically, the automaker plans to convert two existing plants in Hanover and Emden in Germany to EV production, adding greater clarity to its plans for the ID brand. The company has also shared new EV model details.
When it comes to specific EV models, Volkswagen now plans to build the production version of the ID Buzz in Hanover, alongside three other battery-electric SUVs for its other brands. The retro-shaped MPV was among the first battery-electric models from Volkswagen to be green-lit for production, and has been shown to the public in recent years at several auto shows alongside cargo variants also expected to reach production soon.

Volkswagen is also in the process of converting its factory in Emden to EV production -- something that has been hinted in recent months. In addition to building the ID.42 electric sport utility, this plant will also produce a four-door electric model called the Volkswagen Aero1.
Note this model is not being referred to as an ID-branded model, so we expect the sedan to be a global model meant for a variety of markets. Not all would get the other ID models. Volkswagen says the four-door will enter production in Emden, white Passat production shifts to Bratislava, Slovakia.

"At the Volkswagen's brand plant in Emden, the transformation is also progressing rapidly: while the construction work for the switch to electric mobility is fully on track, the second electric model for the site has now been defined," the automaker disclosed. "In addition to the ID.42, the four-door all-electric Volkswagen Aero1 is scheduled to be manufactured there from 2023."

What could such an electric four-door model look like?


The ID Vizzion concept was shown in Geneva in 2018. VOLKSWAGENWe expect it could be the production version of the ID Vizzion sedan concept the automaker showed in March 2018, seen above. It previews a large electric sedan expected to target a segment just below the Tesla Model S.

VW has already green-lit the 2018 ID Vizzion concept back in spring, 2018, promising it by 2022. But it's likely that those plans (alongside ID.3 delays) have been pushed back a year due to the pandemic, and it will now enter production a year later. The ID Vizzion concept shown at the Geneva show promised a monster battery pack with 111 kWh on tap. That's good enough for a 400+ mile range on a full charge with a dual-motor setup -- a 150-kW motor driving the rear wheels and a 75-kW motor driving the front wheels.

The Volkswagen Aero1 branding (as opposed to ID) would make sense for a number of markets, including China, where VW has been present for almost 40 years but ID remains a relatively new and unknown item. And it would also occupy a spot above smaller and less expensive models from the budget-minded ID lineup, which offers buyers a variety of inexpensive EVs like the ID.3 and ID.4.


VW still needs an electric sedan in its lineup after the smaller hatch and SUV models. VOLKSWAGENWe don't expect the production sedan to be as large or heavy as the Phaeton, or the Model S for that matter, but it certainly could be a bit larger and longer than the Passat. This avoids executive-class positioning and pricing of competitors like the Tesla Model S and the Mercedes-Benz EQS, while offering a more upscale battery-electric experience with plenty of range.
The automaker also announced it is investing 73 billion euros on electrification, digital technology and hybrid powertrains over the next five years, boosting investments in research and development to 50 percent from 40 percent of the Volkswagen Group's total investments, adding up to about 150 billion euros.

Hertbert Diess, Volkswagen Group CEO, stressed the focus on investment in software.

"Having set the course for a battery-electric future in the Volkswagen Group early on, we are now a global leader with our electric platforms and a broad range of electric vehicles," Diess said. "In the coming years, it will be crucial to also reach a leading position in car software in order to meet people’s needs for individual, sustainable and fully connected mobility in the future. To that end, we have doubled our digitalization spend."

The third Volkswagen ID. model - the coupe-styled ID.5 SUV - will be launched next year, but only in Europe.

Thomas Ulbrich, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Brand responsible for E-Mobility, revealed in an interview with Automobilwoche that ID.5 will be built and sold only in Europe. ID.5 will not be available globally like the ID.4 as "It would be too early for that. And that is not currently planned."

We don't know much about the upcoming ID.5, besides the fact that it will also be based on the MEB platform, and as the number indicates - more capable than the ID.4.

Volkswagen will launch a larger seven-seater electric crossover based on the same MEB platform as the recently launched ID.4 and it’s going to be called the ID.6. In terms of its look, we don’t expect it to be too different from the ID.4, although you will be very easily be able to tell them apart, because the ID.6 has a much longer wheelbase and different proportions as a result.

Our spies recently snapped what appears to be a quite finished ID.6 prototype cold weather testing. Most of the vehicle is visible - there is minimal camouflage on the body - but the front fascia has been disguised to look like the front of a Peugeot 5008 people carrier. However, underneath the Peugeot mask, we can see this prototype has what appear to be production lights.

The rear lights also appear to be the ones we’ll see on the production version, but VW has applied some camouflage to them, so we can’t see them in their entirety - there might even be a full light bar hiding under the black camo applied to the trim piece that links the two rear light clusters.

In terms of specs, we believe the ID.6 will be very similar to the ID.4, although with the extended wheelbase, it could theoretically accommodate a larger battery pack. Base versions will be rear-wheel drive-only, while more expensive ones will feature a dual-motor all-wheel drive system.

The ID.6 will go head to head with the likes of the Tesla Model X, and since it will most likely undercut it in terms of price (and still offer the same number of seats), it might upset the Tesla’s domination of the seven-seat electric SUV/crossover market. Expect to see it debut sometime in 2021.

One of the biggest obstacles to widespread EV adoption is the charging infrastructure. Carving out a few dedicated spaces or setting up charging stations at every parking lot will take time and money, but Volkswagen is working on a solution that allows an EV to be charged from any regular parking space: robots. And now it has moved beyond the concept stage to a real prototype.

Called simply the "mobile charging robot," which we'll call MCR for short, the squat, R2-D2-like droid lives in a dedicated charging bay that can be installed in any corner of a typical city parking garage. It even has a friendly robot face with LCD eyes that "open" when it's called and a little extendable arm. Alongside it are several trailers comprised of battery stacks that charge in the bay when not in use.

When an EV driver pulls into the lot, they can pick any parking space they like and, via a smartphone app, tell the robot they'd like a charge. The MCR wakes up, grabs an available trailer with its arm, and brings the trailer to the car. The trailers don't have an autonomous function, but the droid is smart enough to avoid obstacles and traffic in the garage. Once at the car, the arm helps plug the connector into the charging port and the Wall-E-like 'bot is free to attend to other cars and trailers. No human intervention is needed.


It's a pretty clever solution, and one that won't require a massive revamp of current parking structures. What's more, VW hints that this is just the beginning. "We are developing solutions to help avoid costly stand-alone measures. The mobile charging robot and our flexible quick-charging station are just two of these solutions,” says Thomas Schall, CEO of Volkswagen Group Components.

Volkswagen says that the system is already undergoing testing in Germany, and has successfully reached the prototype stage. The company says it will be launched in early 2021.

HAMBURG -- Volkswagen plans to develop most of the software needed for autonomous cars in-house, the head of the German carmaker's luxury unit Audi said on Tuesday.

The automaker is not rejecting collaborations in some areas outright, said Markus Duesmann, who as well as running Audi is also on Volkswagen's management board, where he is responsible for research and development.

"But we'll make the bulk of the software on our own in the future," he said during an industry event.

Asked whether Volkswagen was looking to Alphabet's Google as a benchmark in software development, Duesmann said it wanted to be at least on the same level.

"We accept the challenge," he added.

Daimler and Volkswagen are working on their own operating systems for autonomous cars to make sure they have a chance to compete with large tech firms such as Apple and Amazon in the area of electric vehicle data.

Despite calls to team up with rivals, Volkswagen is so far planning to go it alone, pointing to its position as the world's second-largest automaker.
"We have a size that makes us want to cooperate with ourselves initially," said Duesmann, adding that Volkswagen is confident it can set new standards in software development.

If other companies wanted to join these standards it would be possible for them to do so, the Audi executive added.

Volkswagen has bundled its software competence into a newly formed unit Car.Software.Org, which employs about 5,000 and develops the VW.OS operating system.

The German company’s “Accelerate” corporate strategy has a hero vehicle. For now, it’s called Project Trinity, and we have a feeling VW is not gunning for any reference of Carrie-Anne Moss’ famous character from the culturally relevant “The Matrix” series.

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Instead, the automaker wants to emphasize the project’s focus on three major elements that currently stand in the way of the mass adoption of electric vehicles: range, charging time, and (inexpensive) manufacturing. In short, the Project Trinity’s end goal will be to deliver an electric sedan with “high range, extremely short charging times and revolutionary production.”

Unlike the fourth installment in the Keanu Reeves-led action series (set to arrive on December 22nd), we’re in for the long haul for Volkswagen’s EV project. That’s because the company has kicked off a teasing campaign that will test everyone’s patience since the official market arrival for Project Trinity has been set for 2026.

Naturally, this initial design preview of the electrically powered sedan doesn’t give us much to work with, just a lonely sketch that doesn’t even warrant the effort of passing it through some Photoshop filters. We did it anyway, just for the fun of it, but the procedure revealed nothing else of relevance since it’s a CGI, not a picture of the actual vehicle.

Still, even at this early point in time, we do know some of the technology traits that will accompany the series-production version. Volkswagen promises a Wolfsburg, Germany-based production from 2026, as well as the ability “to drive highly automated according to Level 4.”

Actually, it’s going to start much lower at Level 2+ and then become technically ready for Level 4, but that wouldn’t sound as fancy when talking about a car that’s coming out five years from now, would it?

Anyway, the production promise brought with it has to do with the Wolfsburg factory becoming a “showcase for state-of-the-art, intelligent and fully networked” industrialization processes. Naturally, we’re the most intrigued by the touted range and charging capabilities, but VW is rather mysterious about these latter two, only commenting it aims for “charging as fast as refueling.”

Tesla has made its annual Battery Day a spectacle for the brand's fans, one that usually pays dividends. It manages to be a popular event even absent any new car reveals. A number of Volkswagen executives have given Tesla plenty of compliments over the years for the things its has pioneered, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that VW is planning something called Power Day scheduled for March 15 at 1 p.m. Central European Time, which is 7 a.m. ET here in the States.

A brief teaser video posted ahead of the event provides plenty of highway billboard-size hints that it will be about batteries—while also admitting outright that it will not be a car presentation. This gives EV fans plenty of time to stock up on popcorn and speculate about what VW could have in store.

To be fair, VW has already previewed a number of its upcoming EVs well in advance, aping another popular Tesla move, that of making announcements that take years to materialize. The last such preview took place just five days ago when VW previewed the Project Trinity flagship, due to arrive in 2026 with Level 2+ autonomous capability, and that could be upgraded to Level 4 by the end of the decade.

Power Day also comes a few days after Wolfsburg spelled out its Accelerate strategy, that outlines the automaker's EV rollout through the end of the decade: VW aims to have 50% of its US offerings be electric by the year 2030, and 70% in Europe. Another part of the strategy includes the launch of over-the-air updates—once again a feature popularized by Tesla—with VW aiming to release them every 12 weeks starting this summer.

When it comes to battery development, however, VW has kept mostly silent over the past year. One clue could be VW's collaboration with QuantumScape, a California-based battery tech developer that recently announced its solid-state battery design will be ready for mass production in 2024. It's also promising a much greater energy density compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries currently found in EVs, among other distinct advantages.

VW's Power Day could spell out just whenwe could see solid-state battery technology in its cars. It has already dropped a hint in that direction with Project Trinity's promise to offer "new standards in range, charging speed, and digitalization." We'll have to wait a few days to find out whether this mean Project Trinity will see solid-state batteries in 2026 or advanced lithium-ion tech.

In any case, it's clear that 2021 is the most important year for the group when it comes to EVs, with new entries due from Skoda and Cupra, as well as the launch of the ID.4 stateside.

During its inaugural Tesla-style Power Day, Volkswagen detailed plans for its electrification strategy over the next few years, one which will include a range of new technologies and approaches, including steps toward the long-awaited solid-state battery technology.

The Wolfsburg-based automaker plans to launch six gigafactories in Europe alone in order to secure the supply of batteries for VW Group brands by the end of the the decade, with a total energy value of 240 GWh per year when all six are online. The first two gigafactories will be located in Skellefteå, Sweden, in collaboration with Northvolt, and in Salzgitter, Germany.

"The gigafactory currently operated by Volkswagen in Salzgitter will produce the unified cell for the high-volume segment from 2025 and develop innovations in process, design, and chemistry," the automaker said. "Production capacity of up to 40 GWh per year is also planned for Salzgitter. This refocusing will deliver enhanced economies of scale and reduce the complexity of production. Both gigafactories will be powered with electricity from renewable energy sources. Potential sites and partners are currently being considered for the other factories."



VW also plans to switch to a unified battery cell design by 2023, one that will be used in up to 80% of Volkswagen Group vehicles spanning several brands. The new unified battery cell will be produced in-house, with VW working to base as many of its electric offerings as possible on a single architecture that can be used by vehicles in different segments.

"We aim to reduce the cost and complexity of the battery and at the same time increase its range and performance," says Thomas Schmall, Volkswagen Group board member for technology. "This will finally make e-mobility affordable and the dominant drive technology."

“We will use our economies of scale to the benefit of our customers when it comes to the battery, too," Schmall added. "On average, we will drive down the cost of battery systems to significantly below €100 per kilowatt hour. This will finally make e-mobility affordable and the dominant drive technology."

What's more, the Unified Battery Cell that VW intends to put into production starting in 2023 will be a stepping stone on the way to solid-state batteries, and will use a prismatic- as opposed to pouch-based format. VW expects that the costs of production of the Unified battery cell will be reduced by up to 50 percent in entry-level models, when coupled with strategic business partnerships with suppliers and battery producers.

VW plans to build its own gigafactories in Europe in the coming years. VWIn addition reducing its reliance on outside suppliers for batteries, Volkswagen will also focus on building a charging network in Europe and in North America, with plans to operate some 18,000 public fast-charging points in Europe by the year 2025 together with BP and Ionity. As a part of this effort, VW plans to install 150 kW fast-chargers at 4,000 BP and Aral stations in Europe, specifically in Germany and the UK. VW also plans to work with Enel in Italy and Iberdrola in Spain on adding charging stations to existing motorway fuel stations, investing some €400 million in Europe alone by 2025.

When it comes to the US, VW already owns and operates the station-building company Electrify America, which aims to have 3,500 stations in the US by the end of 2021.


"E-mobility has become core business for us. We are now systematically integrating additional stages in the value chain," said says Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Group. "We secure a long-term pole position in the race for the best battery and best customer experience in the age of zero emission mobility."

Overall, the company's first Power Day delivered what was expected, including plans to isolate and streamline battery production for use by 80% of the Group's vehicles, including not only VW's ID lineup but also for brands like Porsche, Audi, Skoda, Bentley, and SEAT. The remaining 20% of batteries are expected to be narrower-use designs for sports cars—not hard to guess which brands could receive more tailored, high-performance designs.

VW also plans to greatly expand the number of charging stations in Europe along with its energy sector partners, which means more charging points at existing fuel stations. Another major development spelled out in today's Power Day was the goal of reducing complexity among the automaker's current offerings, which goes hand in hand with a Unified Battery Cell tactic. The current MEB platform is just the start of a wider shift to a single battery and powertrain architecture among a number of VW brands, which we are currently seeing with offerings from VW, Skoda, and SEAT.

This means the days of having four gas engines and four diesel engines offered for one VW-branded hatchback are already behind us, with the MEB platform proving adaptable for a variety of vehicles across several brands.

Power Day solidified VW's plans to establish partnerships to secure its own battery supply, as squabbles in the EV industry for contracts with battery producers rise. As more brands introduce electric models and announce plans to switch to EV-only lineups, the rush for batteries and the raw materials used in their production will only ramp up. The time to build factories is now, if not yesterday, and VW appears to have realized this some time ago, even as battery components continue to evolve.

In less than three years, Electrify America has opened 600 charging stations across the US, with almost 2,600 individual fast chargers among them, the company said. EA plans to open more stations in Minnesota, Montana, and New Hampshire later this year—states that hadn't seen much attention from station builders up till now. By 2022 the company also plans to add more stations to South Dakota, Hawaii, Vermont, and Wyoming, which will bring its coverage to 47 US states and the District of Columbia.

Electrify America also plans a substantial expansion of its network in Washington state, after plans were set in motion by the state legislature to phase-out sales and registrations of gas-engined light-duty vehicles by the year 2030. The company also plans to focus on regions long neglected by station builders, including the Mountain and the Plains regions.

The company's first station was opened on May 2, 2018, in Chicopee, Massachusetts, so the 600th station makes it online just under the three-year mark.

"With our rapid station deployment, we are on track to have 800 charging stations with about 3,500 chargers open or under development by the end of this year—delivering on our commitment to make EV driving easier and more accessible," said Giovanni Palazzo, president and chief executive officer, Electrify America. "We're proud to be on the forefront of expanding the nation's EV charging infrastructure and are excited to see our continued growth, as we help meet EV demand and climate priorities set by the Administration."



EA's network now allows several options for traveling from coast to coast. Earlier this year Electrify America completed the second coast-to-coast route in the US, which its parent company Volkswagen used on a cross-country trip in March in a new ID.4 sport utility. The ID.4 driving team took a leisurely 6,700-mile route across the country, first going as far west as Chicago before turning south to Atlanta through Nashville. The ID.4 team then took Electrify America's southernmost route, going as far southeast as Orlando and then continuing on through the Gulf Coast states. The team then traveled across Texas and Arizona, arriving in Los Angeles on the west coast and then driving up to the Bay Area, with the final stop in Sacramento.

"With more than 600 stations now available for public use, long distance EV travel is becoming more seamless than ever on Electrify America's network—as stations are strategically located near highway and metro sites with convenient amenities like shopping, banking, and dining," the company notes.

Electrify America's station map actually shows quite a few options for traveling from one coast to another, and depending how you look at it, there are really about four main routes from LA to the east coast. The one major blank is in the upper midwest of course, with no stations yet in Wyoming, North Dakota, or South Dakota, and just one in Minnesota.

So it will be a while before an EV can take a very northern route across the US, but EA is getting there.

Electrify America plans to invest $200 million in California's zero-emission infrastructure and education over the next 30 months, part of its third investment phase into such efforts in the state. The effort is a part of a larger, $800-million investment in the state over the course of 10 years, which began in 2016.

As a part of this next phase, Electrify America plans to build charging stations in a number of the metro areas the company already serves but where EV owners are expected to recharge their vehicles most frequently. This means that new DC stations will be placed near multi-unit buildings where Level 2 charging is frequently difficult, and also near retail locations. Electrify America plans to expand its station count in existing metro area including San Diego-Carlsbad, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara and Fresno. The company also plans to invest in metro areas new to it, including Stockton, Visalia, Bakersfield, Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura and Santa Maria-Santa Barbara.

"This is the next exciting phase of our mission to increase EV infrastructure and awareness in California as the state works towards its commitment to help make 100 percent of new passenger vehicles zero-emission by 2035," said Giovanni Palazzo, president and chief executive officer of Electrify America. "This added investment will provide equitable access to expanded EV infrastructure, technology and services for communities across California, further supporting an electric mobility revolution across all regions of the state."

Electrify America also plans to look within the greater Los Angeles region to find additional places where EV chargers for business fleets could be useful, including regional truck fleets that serve the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The aim is to help encourage electrification of vehicles and equipment in the ports.

A part of this $200 million investment phase also includes a focus on so-called Green Cities, with Electrify America planning to work with Long Beach and Los Angeles city officials and fleet operators on projects to charge current and future heavy-duty vehicles and city transit vehicles, preparing for a future where city buses are electric. Through these efforts, the company will focus on reducing emissions in predominantly disadvantaged and low-income communities, such as Long Beach, as classified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

One component of the overall California initiative is a $25 million investment is a Green City program aimed at Long Beach-Wilmington, which has a fleet of more than 18,000 drayage trucks that could at one point become EVs.
"Long Beach is proud to do our part in moving our country’s transportation economy in a more sustainable, and environmentally focused direction," said Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia. "It’s a great honor to be selected as an Electrify America Green City. This investment will go a long way in supporting our efforts to improve air quality in our highly impacted communities, and to support further upgrades to our fleets with more all-electric vehicles."

Overall, this $200 million investment round will be the third that Electrify America is taking, with each one lasting 30 months. The investment and education programs aimed at California are a part of the larger nationwide effort Volkswagen has been conducting since the fall, 2016, following its diesel settlement with federal agencies and CARB, designed to total $2 billion over 10 years. The second 30-month round concludes at the end of this year, so the plans announced this week are aimed at the third round. By the end of this round in December, Electrify America expects to have 800 stations featuring 3,500 DC fast chargers online.

This next round of investment in EV infrastructure and education won't be limited just to station building efforts, of course, as Electrify America continues to focus on brand-neutral education and awareness efforts, hardware development, support for tech incubator groups and greater EV adoption.

Back in November we reported that Volkswagen would be setting aside more plants for EV production in the coming decade, converting two existing plants in Hanover and Emden in Germany to EV production. Now VW says the Emden plant should be ready to go in the first half of 2022, starting with the ID.4.

Once the ID.4 is up to speed VW said that starting in 2023 it will add production versions of the ID.Vizzion and ID.Space Vizzion, the Passat sized sedan and wagon. The company also said the Passat, Arteon, and Arteon wagon are staying in production at the Emden plant “in a transitional phase lasting several years.”


The Passat sized EV sedan will be built at Emden. A VW official told Autoweek that eventually Emden will become all EVs. “The transformation to e-mobility is becoming more and more concrete in Emden,” said Christian Vollmer, VW’s board member for production. “The entire plant has developed rapidly. We need this commitment because Emden is an important location for our brand’s electrification offensive.”

Plant manager Uwe Schwarz said there has never been a comparable conversion in Emden before. He said the plant is getting ready for the ID.4 next year, with the body shop starting to produce the first ID.4 parts.”