PARIS MOTOR SHOW: Volkswagen to electrify Paris

Troubled car-making giant Volkswagen has teased images of its upcoming mass-market electric car concept – a vital part of its plan to build and sell a million battery-electric vehicles a year by 2025 – ahead of its world debut on September 29.

Due as a production car in 2019, Volkswagen claims the battery-electric small car concept will travel between 400km and 480km on a single charge. (By comparison, the General Motors claims its small Chevrolet Bolt, which won't be produced in right-hand drive, will stretch to 380km.)

The second of Volkswagen’s fully electric cars, it will be the model the brand hopes will lead it back to public and governmental credibility in the wake of its disastrous Dieselgate emissions-cheating scandal, which has lead it to all-but abandon diesel engines in passenger cars in the United States.

Visually, the car will be a cross between the Budd-e electric concept from January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and the Golf, a facelifted version of which will also appear at Paris.

Clearly, the Paris show car won’t be the last from Volkswagen, which is building up two specific, flexible battery-electric architectures for volume cars, plus sportier versions for Porsche, Audi and Bentley.

The next electric cars down the line at Volkswagen will include a people-mover, larger than the current Golf Sportsvan but smaller than the Sharan, which will carry over much of the Budd-e’s styling cues. The people-mover will be followed into production by a luxury sedan to overlap with the Phaeton and a sportier two-door car.

While Volkswagen also insists this car will recharge in just 15 minutes, the big news will be the boost in interior size brought about by the packaging advantages of housing the battery units under the cabin’s floor.

While the car will be roughly similar in size to today’s big-selling Golf hatchback, Volkswagen suggests its interior will be roughly as spacious as the current Passat. That means the new car will deliver a large-car interior for a (realistically) medium-sized car footprint.

It will also be in constant connection with the internet, linking directly to a Volkswagen application that will help it do everything from identify available car-parking spaces to concierge services. Every Volkswagen driver using the app will have their own identification code, which will transfer their preferred settings to every Volkswagen they ever drive, including hire cars and servicing loaners.

The data connection is also planned to send data back the other way to build a real-time database of traffic information for both safety and amenity, and link cars into forthcoming connectivity programs for infrastructure like traffic lights.

Don’t expect exotic materials or massive sacrifices for light weight, though, with project leader Christian Senger insisting the production car will use a traditional steel-aluminium material mix in its body and architecture.

“Construction will be the same as today,” Senger said. “There won’t be any radical body concepts.”