Volkswagen (VW) showed a glimpse at its future at the 2019 Canadian Auto Show with the company’s new I.D. Crossover concept electric vehicle. The I.D. Crossover concept is incredibly important for the legacy automaker since it’s staking a lot on the new modular MEB electric vehicle (EV) platform. MEB is an acronym for the German words “Modularer Elektrobaukasten” since the platform, at its heart, is designed to make the vehicle’s core modular. The system is a set of design rules and parts that the company is using to standardize the core of its vehicles. Things like batteries, charging plugs, the drivetrain and power electronics will be the same across multiple vehicles to come out of the Volkswagen Automotive Group. This includes brands like Audi, Bentley, Porsche, and more. The platform even allows Volkswagen to make its vehicles smaller on the outside and larger on the inside, according to Weissland. The first MEB-based production car to hit the consumer market is Audi’s upcoming E-Tron. The first Volkswagen MEB vehicle Canadians will see is a crossover that should look similar to the I.D. Crossover concept on display at the Auto Show. “The real version will come to the Canadian market in the next two years as a real car,” said Weissland. There are more I.D. ’s for the European market. Since Canadian buyers tend to want crossovers with lots of storage and high seats, Canada is getting a crossover I.D. Volkswagen might not even keep this platform to itsself; Weissland said the company is open to working with other automakers to collaborate on and share the platform. When asked about how legacy automakers should feel about newer all-electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla, and, to a lesser extent, companies like Rivian, Weissland said, “you need to give Tesla all the credit. It disrupted the industry.
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Volkswagen has seemingly combined the best of two of its recent Frankfurt concepts -- the E-Up! 1L -- to form its LA show car, the Up! Lite. With a relatively spacious interior and a hybrid-diesel powertrain, this fuel-sipping concept could be the most production-viable Up! Although theoretically built upon the same "New Small Family" platform as other Up! Lite concept looks slightly different from its siblings. Volkswagen's tried to reduce drag by shrinking the front fascia, and the result looks more like a miniature Scirocco than an E-Up! Even though it's both lower and longer than the E-Up! Lite has interior space comparable to a three-door Polo, and can easily seat four. While the one-liter concept made use of a ridiculously tiny turbo-diesel engine and the E-Up! Lite combines the two into a single package. Motive power stems from the same 51-hp, 0.8-liter two-cylinder turbo-diesel TDI engine used in the 1L concept, but in this instance, it's pared with a 10-kW electric motor.
Both power sources channel their energy through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Power mostly stems from the microscopic TDI, but the hybrid driveline is capable of allowing the electric motor power the car on its own. VW claims the car has 1.2-mile range in EV mode, making it ideal for parking lots, neighborhoods, and other short-range, low-speed scenarios. VW could extend that range by stuffing in a larger battery pack, but the automaker claims the car's effiency would suffer as a result. Honestly, if the figures given from this car are true, it's hard for any fuel miser to scoff at the Up! Lite. Volkswagen says the car can return approximately 70 mpg on the freeway -- substantially less than the 235 mpg offered by the 1L, but not bad for a vehicle that carries four and offers some additional cargo space. The 70 mpg figure is accomplished in a few different ways.
