NEW GENERATION ALL ELECTRIC PHAETON LUXURY SEDAN

New Generation All Electric Phaeton Luxury Sedan

Volkswagen has been delaying the inevitable for way too long by fooling around with emission cheating devices in its EA 189 TDI - 2.0L and 3.0L Diesel Engines, and completely missed the window of opportunity enjoyed by its competitors. To the point that the EPA has placed a halt on all VW diesel engines destined for use in 2016 vehicles.  Meanwhile Toyota sales have topped VW sales for the month of November and outsold Volkswagen for 5th straight month. At this rate Toyota is likely to outsell VW for  December and very likely for the entire year of 2015. 

I'm certain this vexes Volkswagen greatly because Volkswagen has been blowing its own horn as the 'Group of the year for 2014' even though  they are no longer considered among the top fifty companies in Germany. In an attempt to regain its status and as a measure to contain the fallout of the Diesel emissions debacle, the newspapers and magazines have been inundated with Volkswagen Service offers flaunting slogans like.

"Volkswagen Service is proud to introduce Volkswagen Economy Packages".

"Nobody knows Volkswagen better than we do and  nobody's better equipped to service it."

"Let the people who built your car, service and repair your car". 

 "Volkswagen only uses Genuine Parts".

"You  get service of the highest international standard - 100% Volkswagen service".

"Your Volkswagen is Serviced by Volkswagen Certified  Technicians, highly trained and relentlessly dedicated".

The million dollar question is, "Is this enough to make a come back" or "Is it a matter of too little too late". The Diesel Gate Scandal  that cost Volkswagen tens of billions of dollars only caused an enormous surge in EV interest. Today EV prices compare very favourably with petrol and diesel equivalents and electric cars are no longer the preserve of the rich minority. They are now available to anybody who wants a reliable, cheap-to-run car because the days of spending $75 per week to fill up your polluting car will soon be over. 

Considering electric cars have no emissions, and their speed, performance and range have vastly improved. EV's carry no road tax levy and its running costs are as little as 4 cents per mile, a quarter of the average cost for petrol / diesel cars. The Toyota Prius is currently sold in more than 90 countries and its global cumulative sales have passed the  5.2 million units mark  in July 2015. This figure represents 65.4% of the 8 million hybrids sold worldwide by Toyota Motor Company since 1997. Toyota's sales figures for the first three quarters of 2015 stands at 21,210,000,000.00 JPY = 162,256,500.00 EUR or 176,255,100.00 USD.

Volkswagen is on the back foot for not embracing EV's sooner and is scrambling to get their New Generation All Electric Phaeton Luxury Sedan to market by 2017, which is destined to rival both Tesla and Mercedes Benz. The next big question is, "Can VW pull this off sucessfully"?

Initially when Volkswagen's launched their first-generation Phaeton luxury sedan, their objective  was  to prove that they are the world's innovation and engineering leader, and not Mercedes-Benz or Rolls Royce. But the $70,000+ Phaeton was a flop in  North America and was discontinued, yet  it  underpinned the hugely successful Bentley Continental and the Audi A8. From this one can easily see that the Phaeton was probably something very special hence it survived the chopping block,  as all  non essential / unnecessary projects were scrapped because of the ongoing diesel emissions scandal.

A rendered model of what the New Generation all electric Phaeton luxury sedan could look like.

Tesla Signature Series Model X with Tesla's Autopilot autonomous driving system.