Electrified Volkswagens still years away from Oz

Volkswagen Group might have announced it will launch a new electric vehicle (EV) every month on average from 2019, but Australians won’t be able to buy an electrified VW until 2021 at the earliest.

The German car-maker has become one of the most vocal brands when it comes to the importance of EVs, as it tries to distance itself from the dieselgate emissions scandal.

Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Muller yesterday pledged to build 16 EV factories around the world within four years and produce three million EVs a year by 2025, including 80 new electric cars and SUVs with a focus on Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche.

He said every one of the 300 models produced from the car-making giant’s brands (Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Skoda and Seat, plus VW Commercial, Scania and MAN) will be offered with an electrified powertrain by 2030.

In Australia, however, the Volkswagen brand continues to remain without any electrified models (hybrid, plug-in hybrid, full-electric or otherwise) and has no confirmed timeline as to when we'll see them.

With the Volkswagen e-Golf ruled out locally, the plug-in hybrid Golf GTE was expected to be the brand’s first electrified vehicle in Australia. It had been tipped to arrive this year, priced at under $50,000.

However, Volkswagen Group Australia has confirmed it has not only axed plans to import the Golf GTE, but any sort of plug-in hybrid model.

"It's disappointing in that we would like to have had the car [Golf GTE] and we think there's a market for it here," said Volkswagen Australia’s product planning manager for SUVs and passenger cars, Jeff Shafer.

Shafer said high levels of overseas demand have prevented the GTE from coming Down Under, adding that the model has been discontinued in the UK due to lack of supply.

"It’s something we were really working very hard to bring here in the short-term and we pushed very hard for it, but at the moment there’s just not enough production globally."

Instead, Shafer confirmed Volkswagen Australia's first electrified model will be a member of VW’s new pure-electric I.D. family.

"I guess it makes it very clear for us that the focus right now is on the I.D. generation of cars that are fully electric," he stated.

The first model to emerge from Volkswagen’s new I.D. sub-brand will be a small hatchback based on the company’s all-new MEB battery-electric vehicle platform. It’s due on sale in Europe in 2020.

But Shafer said it was too early to say which I.D. model would be the first to arrive Down Under or when.

"We'll see the I.D. range of cars and where we start with that is a little bit early to say, but I think those will be our first foray into electrification within Australia.

"We're heading off to Germany this week to have discussions about future [EV] products, so we'll know more over the next few months and years," stated Shafer.

Powered by an electric motor fed by a Lithium-ion battery pack dense enough to allow a range of around 450km, Volkswagen’s upcoming I.D. model range will include at least a hatch, sedan, people-mover and SUV by 2022.

In the meantime, the first Volkswagen Group EV to arrive in Australia is likely to be the Audi e-tron SUV, which hits Europe later this year as a direct rival for the upcoming Jaguar I-PACE and Mercedes-Benz EQC.