Volkswagen Electric Vehicles: One Battery, Less Costs?
Right now, the biggest problem that electric vehicles face is production cost: it’s possible to design a car that can go over 400 km on a single charge, but there is no way to make it cost less than $70,000.
VW has been trying to make this means of propulsion more viable; faithful to their 'people’s car' moniker, Volkswagen offers fully-electric versions of their Golf and their Up!, a city car available in Europe (Yes, the exclamation point is part of the name).
It seems that the manufacturer is preparing a new era of electric vehicles: in an interview, Heinz-Jakob Neusser, Development Chief for VW, announced that his team is working on a new idea that could reduce battery costs (the single priciest part on an electric car) by around 60%. The idea is devilishly simple: instead of developing a different battery for each vehicle, every upcoming VW will use the exact same battery design.
This change will not only reduce costs, but could even allow factories to churn out more batteries.
VW’s secret labs are also reportedly at work on a new type of lithium-ion battery cell which could hold 5 times more energy.