VW Has Electric Up! in the Works for 2013 Says Winterkorn
By John O'Dell July 6, 2009Volkswagen CEO Says Electric Cars are the Future of Personal Transportation
VW is preparing a battery-electric version of its Up! city car (right)
, to be launched in 2013 and plans to have a range of electric passenger cars in the market by 2010, says chief executive Martin Winterkorn.
His remarks at a German automotive meeting, including his prediction that electric vehicles will define the future of personal mobility, were reported by ADP News.
The report says Winterkorn promised that the electric Up! would cost only about $2,700 more than the conventional model of the city car and would be capable of making the trip from Munich to Hamburg -a distance of 480 miles.
Winterkorn didn't offer an explanation of how VW expects to more than double the range of electric cars being tested today (the Tesla Roadster, the only production EV in the market, boasts a 240 mile range in ideal conditions).
He did caution, however, that EVs need "electricity filling stations" to be successful.
Winterkorn said he expects Volkswagen to capture 1 percent to 1.5 percent of the global market for EVs in 2020.
Separately, he said in a speech in Germany today that China has taken the lead in the electrochemical technologies used in electric vehicle battery development and hat its capabilities are being underestimated.
Winterkorn also suggested that EVs need a clean source of energy and that Germany should rethink its opposition to nuclear powerplants.
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