Get safety tips for the family this holiday, as well as some insight on how to save fuel. We unpack all the news and review some updates to the South African Automotive Masterplan. Plus a look at Ford’s bid to remove the the fresh car smell from their cars that sell into China… and a review of the new Subaru Forester. Powered by AutoTrader.
VW’s next generation of petrol and diesel cars will be its last
Did you miss the AutoTrader Team on AutoCentral talking about VW’s plan to stop
producing petrol and diesel cars?
Wolfsburg – Volkswagen says it will begin rolling out its last generation of combustion engine
cars in 2026, in its latest green pledge as it looks to turn the corner on the “dieselgate”
emissions cheating scandal.
The carmaker said it would phase out its diesel and petrol cars as it looks to meet the
emissions targets of the 2015 Paris climate deal by 2050.
Michael Jost, Volkswagen’s strategy chief, told an industry conference on Tuesday that the
firm’s employees were working on “the last platform for vehicles that aren’t CO2 neutral”.
“We’re gradually fading out combustion engines to the absolute minimum,” he said at the
conference near the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The group, through its multitude of brands that also includes Seat, Skoda, Audi, Porsche,
Lamborghini and Bentley) has set itself the ambitious target of offering more than 50 electric
models by 2025, up from six today.
Jost said that last generation of vehicles would begin to roll out in 2026 and predicted that the
last vehicle with a combustion engine would be sold around 2040, according to the German
newspaper Handelsblatt, whose car conference he spoke at.
That does not necessarily bode well for South Africa with its continuous electricity woes and
lagging charging infrastructure.
Closing the gap
In November’s announcement the group said its “electric offensive” would focus on electric,
self-driving and connected cars as well as mobility services like car sharing.
The move underscores just how serious the carmaker is about closing the gap with Asian
rivals and America’s Tesla, who have had a head start in the e-car race.
Volkswagen’s pivot towards e-cars has in part been spurred by efforts to shake off its ongoing
“dieselgate” scandal.
The saga also fuelled a backlash against diesel, with a string of German cities now facing
driving bans for the oldest, most polluting diesel cars.
Faced with increasingly angry drivers, the German government has come under pressure to
avoid the bans but its efforts to get carmakers to commit to cleaning up engines have had
limited success.
Source: IOL
