The name of the new brand, formed from the words "Volt" and "Volkswagen", reflects the company's entry into a new era of mass production of electric vehicles.
American division of the German automaker Volkswagen will use a new brand for electric vehicles with the original name - Voltswagen. So far, the new brand will be used exclusively in the United States and it will not affect the parent company in Germany in any way.
In both cases, the brand will retain its recently revised the VW logo, which will be darker on petrol vehicles, while the emblem on electric vehicles will be light blue. The electric cars will also carry the Voltswagen nameplate.
This became known from a press release leaked to the Internet at the beginning of the week, dated April 29, 2021. Later, this intention was also confirmed by a certain person who was familiar with the company's plans, but wished to remain anonymous. According to CNBC, which obtained the press release, the name change will affect all of the automaker's U.S. operations, but Voltswagen of America will continue to be an operating division of the larger Volkswagen Group of America.
It is assumed that the emergence of a new brand should mark the beginning of the "electric" era for the American division of Volkswagen. Company actively invested in this direction. So, it is expected that by 2030, half of the brand's cars sold in the United States will be equipped with electric motors. In Europe, by that time, sales of electric vehicles will already be 70%.
Representatives of Volkswagen of America did not respond to journalists' inquiries regarding the new brand. The appearance of the press release on the Internet remains a mystery, it is not known whether this happened through an oversight or was done intentionally as part of a controlled leak of information.
Later, an official denial from Volkswagen was published on the Web. The company said that the message that appeared was nothing more than a joke and they were not going to carry out any rebranding. But due to the fact that this information did not appear on April 1st, many analysts, investors and marketers believed it. The public reacted positively to the original news, as a result of which the value of the company's shares has grown significantly.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen's promise to go all-electric is no joke. The company is really active in this direction and recently announced significant commitments to invest in battery plants and expand charging networks. At the same time, Volkswagen's electric ambitions are not only environmental concern, but also the restoration of a reputation tarnished during the scandal with diesel engines, the emission level of which was indicated as lower than it actually was.
