Volkswagen's Plan: Lure 'em in With Sporty Plug-ins, Sell Them on EV Tech

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

If you’re a greenie who loves hauling your compostable tote to the grocery store in search of climate-conscious vegan food, Volkswagen’s U.S. lineup likely leaves a lot to be desired. For now, anyway. The automaker’s domestic offerings are pretty heavily skewed in favor of larger, gas-powered utility vehicles, with the promised lineup of electrics has yet to materialize.

Overseas, VW product news would have this hypothetical buyer up at night, unable to sleep due to all of the cortisol rushing through their bloodstream. Knowing the jump to EVs might be too wide a gap for some, the automaker is readying a range of performance plug-in hybrids to placate the nervous and sell them on the idea of electricity.

European buyers have access to a Golf GTE plug-in hybrid with 242 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque drawn from a turbocharged 1.4-liter/electric motor combo. That same powertrain is expected to find its way into the Tiguan GTE and Arteon GTE, both announced by VW earlier this month. In that market, VW also has a Passat GTE on offer, with a second-generation Tiguan R plug-in for those who like spending money. That model pairs a 2.9-liter V6 with its electric hardware.

“This is one means of making electrified cars attractive: they can combine pure electric driving capability with high performance if the driver wants to use it,” said Kia Philipp, VW’s electric powertrain manger, in an interview with Autocar. “With a plug-in hybrid system, that performance comes with no compromise in terms of torque or power, so we wanted to use the two components to make the car as attractive as possible.”

With a hotter version of the Arteon nixed for the U.S. market and importation of anything but the hottest (Mk. 8) Golf family members expected for the coming year, a plug-in product surge in the U.S. looks unlikely. Here, VW has a two sides-style strategy in mind: conventional gas-powered vehicles, and all-electric. That said, it’s not inconceivable that the company would introduce a PHEV in a popular segment where the expected take rate would make the operation worthwhile.

If one were to come, the Tiguan seems the most likely candidate. Look at its increasingly electrified compact CUV rivals for a reason why.

While plug-in hybrids remain a tough sell on this side of the pond, Volkswagen sees brighter days ahead for the powertrain type. “It’s my personal view that the peak for plug-in hybrid cars is still ahead of us and will come in the next 8-10 years,” Philipp said. “But it’s strongly dependent on the market success of pure electric cars.”

[Image: Corey Lewis/TTAC]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Jkross22 Jkross22 on Apr 09, 2020

    EVs are fine, but out of town travel for most requires way too much compromise due to charging station locations and time. What Honda and Toyota have done with their hydrogen cars seems like a smart way to address this - offer up 2 weeks of lux rental car time per year with each lease of the Clarity/Mirai. No reason EVs can't come with a similar feature.

    • See 9 previous
    • Dal20402 Dal20402 on Apr 14, 2020

      @mcs Imagine if maybe EVs (with the expanded charging infra that's already on the way) are well-suited for families on road trips who have to stop for potty and snack breaks, and not as well suited for road warriors doing 1500 miles at a stretch! It's almost as though different products could serve different markets. There is a spot on my last 2000-mile road trip where there are not currently any fast chargers, but fix that one spot, and I think we could do the trip in the Bolt almost as fast as we did it in the Highlander. Small kids, not range, are usually the limiting factor.

  • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Apr 09, 2020

    • Volkswagen’s Plan: Lure ’em in With Sporty Plug-ins, Sell Them on EV Tech • Toyota's Plan: More Grille • Hyundai's Plan: Keep Improving, Sell Vehicles • GM's Plan: Announce Plans for Future 'Green' Offerings, Then Cancel Those Plans and Sell Fullsize SUV's • Ford's Plan: Rainbow, Unicorn, Mach-E, Put Difficult Launches Behind Us • Nissan's Plan: Find the Audio-Equipment Case • Honda's Plan: What is a "Plan"? • FCA's Plan: Refer to PSA's Plan • Renault's Plan: Unavailable for comment (in a meeting with the government of France) • PSA's Plan: Push to Pass

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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