Automotive News Europe - June 2019 - 19

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

EVENTS

VW will focus on early adopters
for first ID3 electric cars
ANDREA MALAN

amalan@autonews.com

olkswagen is focusing initial marketing efforts for its ID3 batterypowered compact hatchback on "early
adopters" of electric vehicles, VW brand
marketing chief Jochen Sengpiehl said.
VW started a pre-booking marketing
campaign for an ID3 launch edition but
deliveries will not start until the middle
of next year. The long lead time will be
used to learn from customers why they
want to buy the car and how VW can improve its marketing to prepare the right
product for the right people at the right
time, Sengpiehl said. "We have to make
it right," he said.
The Golf-sized ID3 is the first model underpinned by VW Group's MEB platform
for mass-market electric cars. The MEB
architecture is a key component in the
automaker's bid to become the global
EV leader, surpassing Tesla.
Other MEB-based models, including
SUVs, will follow for the VW, Audi, Skoda
and Seat brands. Volkswagen aims to
sell up to 150,000 MEB-based EVs by

the end of 2020. Production of the ID3
launch edition will start at the end of
this year at VW's revamped EV factory in
Zwickau, Germany.
VW has plans to sell MEB-based EVs in
China and the U.S., but it has not been
decided yet which product goes where
and when, Sengpiehl told the Automotive News Europe Congress in Gothenburg. VW's goal is to "democratize emobility," he said.
The ID family of cars will also be an important lever for VW to quickly burnish
its environmental credibility.
Sengpiehl is leading a wide-ranging
redefinition of the VW brand identity,
which he described as "the biggest
transformation of our company." It will
include a new logo and a new digital hub
that will "bundle all touch points."
The customer will have his/her own
Volkswagen identity in the same way
he/she has an Apple profile. Through
this profile the company will offer services to the car owner and gather data.
Traditional dealers will be connected to
the hub and keep their role as "physical
ANE
touch points," Sengpiehl said.

Sengpiehl is leading a redefintion of the
VW brand identity.

Nissan finds new uses for EV batteries
NICK GIBBS

ngibbs@crain.com

ata from Nissan shows the batteries
used by its Leaf electric car will outlast the car by another 10 to 12 years,
said Francisco Carranza, who is Nissan
Europe's director of energy business.
Nissan monitors everything from charging patterns to battery degradation on
the more than 400,000 Leafs it has sold
in Europe since launching the first generation in 2011.

"Aftersales revenue will massively suffer
from electrification," Carranza said.
Nissan has a number of projects to repurpose its batteries -- both new and
used -- in applications outside of the
car. Last year a three-megawatt storage
system using the equivalent of 148 Leaf

Based on the average life of a car at 10
years, Carranza put the battery life at 22
years. "We are going to have to recover
those batteries," Carranza told the Automotive News Europe Congress in Gothenbrug. Nissan has been looking at
ways to boost revenue from electric cars
for itself and its customers as traditional
revenue streams dry up in the switch
from combustion cars to electric cars.

Nissan also offers solar panels and
battery storage for homes, similar to a
program marketed by Tesla, under the
Nissan Energy Solar brand. The starting
price for solar panels and battery storage in the UK is 7,635 pounds (about
8,650 euros). The system is controlled
via an app. "We are stepping away from
the garage and closer to the living room,"
Carranza said.
Nissan is trialing ways that its electric cars
can be used to balance supply and demand at peak times by storing energy and
then returning it to the grid during times
the car is not being used. A pilot program
in Denmark run with Italian energy company Enel showed that owners could earn
ANE
up to 1,300 euros this way.

Nissan's Carranza says the battery life in
EVs such as the Leaf is 22 years.
JUNE 2019

batteries was opened at Amsterdam's
ArenA soccer stadium aimed at providing a more reliable and efficient energy
supply and usage.

Photos: Lars Ardarve
www.autonewseurope.com

http://www.autonewseurope.com

Automotive News Europe - June 2019

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