The electrification of Astypalea is picking up speed: The Volkswagen Group has delivered the first electric cars to private customers on the Greek island. A turquoise ID.3 Pure was handed over to its new owner directly at the windmills of Chora, the main town on Astypalea. Further deliveries included the ID.4 and e-up! as well as the Seat MÓ eScooter 125. As a result, the e-fleet on Astypalea is further growing, after the local authorities have been using electric vehicles already since last year. The "Smart & Sustainable Island" project is a joint initiative of the Volkswagen Group and the Hellenic Republic. In the coming years, Astypalea will be converted into an island where the mobility will be smart and sustainable, and the energy system will be completely renewed.

Thanos Papagiannis, the first ID.3 customer on Astypalea, is a firm advocate of e-mobility. His new electric vehicle replaces a Volkswagen Golf 3: "E-mobility is a perfect match for Astypalea. The distances here are short, the power consumption is low, and the charging network is now very well developed. I really hope that Astypalea will inspire other regions to increase their efforts for climate protection adopting e-mobility solutions. "

Maik Stephan, Head of Business Development of Volkswagen Group and Project Manager, emphasizes: "Astypalea is a laboratory for the mobility of the future. The island is experiencing the same change as any other region in Europe, only in a much shorter time. With the first private customers driving electric now, word will quickly get around how fascinating e-mobility is."

Volkswagen’s commitment to the sustainable development of Astypalea goes even beyond the electrification of the vehicle fleet. Recently, the Volkswagen importer for Greece Kosmocar and the Municipality launched a recycling initiative aiming at freeing the island from scrap vehicles. Broken motorcycles, cars and trucks are simply left behind in many places, polluting the beautiful island of Astypalea. The recycling campaign is intended to eliminate the associated environmental impact and at the same time make the island even more beautiful. The vehicles are first collected by volunteers, then brought by ship to Athens and finally professionally recycled there.

The next milestone of the "Smart & Sustainable Island" project will be coming soon: In summer, Volkswagen will launch innovative, all-electric mobility services together with local companies. Ride sharing and vehicle sharing are designed to improve mobility while helping to reduce the total number of vehicles on the island.

Article source: www.volkswagen-newsroom.com

Today the press conference of the exhibition "Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture" took place at the world-famous Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The initiator and curator of the unique show, iconic architect and visionary Sir Norman Foster, spoke together with Dr. Herbert Diess (Chairman of the Board of Volkswagen AG), Ignacio Gálan (Chairman and CEO Iberdrola) and museum director Juan Ignacio Vidarte about the history of the automobile and the mobility of the future. “Motion” presents around 40 exceptional cars along with artworks by Andy Warhol, Donald Judd, Giacomo Balla and others. In the Future Gallery sketches and models from students give a glimpse into how mobility might look like in the year 2086. The universities cooperated with Bentley Motors Limited, UK and Volkswagen, among others. The sponsorship of the exhibition in Bilbao is part of Volkswagen's international cultural engagement as well as an expression of the support of cultural concerns in the vicinity of the Spanish Volkswagen facilities.

"Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture" tells the story from the original idea of a car up to possible scenarios in the decades to come, putting the focus on how this development has been reflected with creative measures. The exhibition addresses influences on industrial and product design sparked by the experience of speed, freedom and flexibility. Room is also given to transformations of urban areas and unfavorable effects on the environment caused by the extensive popularity of the car. It then culminates in a series of concepts for future ways to satisfy individual mobility needs.

15 leading universities from all over the world with a focus on design, architecture, technology or art have developed sketches and models that envision life and forms of mobility in the year 2086 – the 200th birthday of the automobile. The cooperation with the Yale School of Architecture and Volkswagen Group Design under the direction of Klaus Zyciora has created the "futureNOMAD" project. The interdisciplinary ideas are an attempt to find possible responses to the upcoming ecological and social challenges of our world.

The exhibition's curator, Sir Norman Foster, summarized the project mission: "This exhibition celebrates the art of the automobile design and explores its cultural links to art and architecture. It could be a requiem for the age of combustion as it makes a leap into the future with a gallery devoted to the work of fifteen schools of design and architecture, who have been invited to imagine mobility at the end of this century – coincident with the 200th anniversary of the birth of the automobile."

Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, remarks at the opening of the exhibition: “Mobility is still a highly emotional subject. The power of design, of a brand and its identity remain key. Autonomous driving increases the opportunities for benefitting from mobility, for enjoying more comfort, and improved safety in particular. And mobility reduces its negative facets as it becomes more sustainable. The MOTION exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao fuses technological innovation with aesthetics and emotions, and it provides promising and motivating ideas for a future in a rapidly and radically changing world.”

The exhibition features around forty original automobiles including selected cars from the Group's collection: a 1951 Volkswagen Beetle and a 1962 Volkswagen Typ 2. A sound installations realized with the support of Pink-Floyd drummer Nick Mason, gives an acoustic insight into the history of the car – finalizing with the sound installation of the sound of an ID. Buzz.

The sponsorship of the exhibition in Bilbao is part of Volkswagen's international cultural engagementVolkswagen's collaborations include a multi-year partnership with Neue Nationalgalerie and Hamburger Bahnhof, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, a partnership with documenta fifteen, and continuous support of the international work of the Dresden Music Festival. The activities are vital elements for Volkswagen to assume corporate social responsibility and empower a free, forward-looking and inspirational dialogue between people.

Article source: www.volkswagen-newsroom.com

The Volkswagen Group successfully continued its global electric offensive in the first quarter, lifting deliveries of all-electric vehicles by 65 percent year-on-year. Despite supply bottlenecks for semiconductors and wire harnesses, 99,100 BEVs have been handed over to customers by the end of March, up from 60,000 in the opening quarter of the previous year. The biggest increase was seen in China, where 28,800 customers took delivery of a BEV manufactured by a Group brand – a more than four-fold increase versus the prior-year period.

In terms of BEV deliveries by region, Europe was still clearly in the lead, with 58,400 vehicles (share of 59 percent) in the first three months. In the USA, the Group handed over 7,900 BEVs to customers, which corresponded to 8 percent of its global BEV deliveries. In China 28,800 BEVs had been delivered by the end of March, more than four times as many as in the first quarter of 2021. This represents 29 percent of the Group’s worldwide BEV deliveries.

By the end of March, the core brand Volkswagen delivered 53,400 BEVs to customers (share of 54 percent). This was followed by Audi with 24,200 vehicles (share of 24 percent), Porsche with 9,500 vehicles (share of 10 percent), ŠKODA with 8,800 vehicles (share of 9 percent) and SEAT/CUPRA with 2,200 vehicles (share of 2 percent).

The top 5 BEV models in the first quarter of 2022 were as follows:

– Volkswagen ID.4 30,300 units

– Volkswagen ID.3 13,000 units

– Audi Q4 e-tron (incl. Sportback) 10,700 units

– Audi e-tron (incl. Sportback) 10,300 units

– Porsche Taycan (incl. Cross Turismo) 9,500 units

Article source: www.volkswagen-newsroom.com

Electrifying Spain by creating a European Electric Vehicle Hub, building up a battery cell production and full, sustainable E-ecosystem: These are the goals of Volkswagen Group and SEAT for the Iberian Peninsula. Today, the Group declared its plan to apply to the Electric Vehicle PERTE program after the Spanish government announced to open the call for applications on April 1st, 2022. The ‘Future Fast Forward’ program would include a total investment of more than 7 billion euros together with external suppliers along the entire value chain of e-mobility. Furthermore, Volkswagen announced Valencia as the dedicated location for a new battery cell factory in Spain. All plans are still subject to final approvals, foremost the PERTE submission.

“This project is highly important – for Volkswagen, for Spain, and for the whole of Europe. It’s our ambition to electrify Spain and we are willing to invest more than seven billion euro together with external suppliers for the electrification of our Martorell and Pamplona plants and the localization of the battery value chain in Valencia", said Thomas Schmall, member of the Volkswagen AG Board of Management responsible for Technology and chairman of the SEAT S.A. Board of Directors.

“‘Future Fast Forward’ has the potential to transform the Spanish automotive industry and democratize electric mobility across Europe. The more than 7 billion euros Volkswagen Group and SEAT S.A. would mobilize for Future: Fast Forward would represent the largest industrial investment in Spanish history”, said Wayne Griffith, president of SEAT.

Gigafactory Valencia would be Volkswagen’s second location after Salzgitter and the first one outside of Germany. “In Valencia, we are planning to build up nothing less than next-generation cell production: A standardized factory, producing Volkswagen’s cutting-edge unified cell and supplied with renewable energy, enabling a sustainable battery production. It will create a strong pulling effect in the whole battery value chain in Spain and beyond”, said Schmall.

The selection process was tough and Valencia emerged as the strongest location based on more than 100 criteria such as qualified workforce, public support, good logistic connections and green energy. Volkswagen aims for a production capacity of 40 GWh annually and plans to employ more than 3,000 people in Valencia. The timeline is tight: To be ready to start production in 2026, construction of the plant should begin by the end of the year. The first milestone must be the positive outcome of the PERTE submission and finalized permits.

Thomas Schmall: “Transforming an entire industry is a huge challenge. To be competitive in the new electric world, we now have to raise productivity in our Spanish car production. And we need to qualify many of our people for new tasks, including battery development and production. This calls for a lot of flexibility by everyone and a possible change of jobs. But the important news is: The overall effect on employment will be positive – despite the faster assembly times in the electric car manufacturing. If we do it right and get the right support by the Spanish government, we will be able to create additional jobs in this transition for Spain.”

In total, Volkswagen plans to build six Gigafactories in Europe with an annual capacity of 240 GWh together with partners. The group’s demand for premium cells will be met by Northvolt in Skellefteå, Sweden. To speed up the roll-out of all further cell factories coming up for Europe, Volkswagen has founded a European corporation for cell development and manufacturing and keeps the option open to integrate partners or investors. Its center of gravity – and a blueprint for all following plants – will be the Salzgitter plant in Germany starting production in 2025.

Article source: www.volkswagen-newsroom.com