Volkswagen is gearing up to launch an assortment of electric vehicles including the ID Buzz and ID Crozz but a new report is indicating the company will eschew plug-in hybrids.
According to Car and Driver, Volkswagen doesn’t intend to offer any plug-in hybrids in the United States. The report goes on to suggest the company might not even offer them in Europe either.
The move could prove risky as plug-in hybrids offer some of the benefits of electric vehicles without the necessity of always having to be recharged. This makes them ideal for long distance travel as they can operate on electricity alone for short periods of time before using a conventional engine to power the vehicle on longer trips.
In an interview with the magazine, Volkswagen brand boss Herbert Diess said “For America, plug-in hybrids don’t make a lot of sense for the upstream emissions and they’re just not incentivized by the tax schemes.” Diess went on to say plug-in hybrids make sense in markets such as China but he’s not convinced they’re a good fit for European customers.
For the time being, Volkswagen will focus on electric vehicles and Diess thinks they will be cheaper and easier to build than most people realize. As he explained, “You always have, in your product range, more profitable cars and less profitable cars. We will already achieve with the first car – the ID Hatch – the same profit range we achieve with the Polo.” He went on to say he’s okay with the slim profit margins even though they aren’t great.
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