Volkswagen Group CEO Says ‘No’ To Electric Beetle

The Beetle is one of Volkswagen’s most iconic cars. It has been around since 1938, with the latest iteration launching 8 years ago.

Its long history should be enough to make Volkswagen consider a successor, maybe with electric power as recent reports suggested, right? Not quite, because MotorTrend found out that the Beetle won’t be turned into an EV, after speaking to CEO Herbert Diess.

The Group’s head honcho was asked about the zero-emission version of the car, to which he simply said “no”, explaining that “you have to do something emotional, but I think we can’t cover the historic lineup of Volkswagen with electric cars, and we shouldn’t.”

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Now, that doesn’t apply to the Bus, which will be brought back using the MEB platform that’s dedicated exclusively to electric cars within the VW Group.

“You can do such derivatives probably easier this way than on conventional platforms”, said Diess. “That basically made the ID Buzz possible, because with that platform, you have the flat battery so you have a lot of design freedom. You can do many very emotional vehicles easier.”

The VW chief talked about other upcoming vehicles, revealing that they will sell the entire ID range in the United States, except for the Hatch, “because of the size and because hatchbacks are a relatively small segment in the U.S.”, and that’s “why we decided to offer it only in Europe and China”.

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He also confirmed something that we already knew, the fact that they will launch the Arteon to this side of the pond later this year.

Volkswagen’s relationship with Ford is still “building up”, and they have yet to decide whether they will share the MEB architecture with the Blue Oval. Moreover, Diess divulged that a Ranger-based pickup truck would make more sense in the U.S., as this “segment is growing fast worldwide, also in Indonesia, in Asia.”

“In the U.S., it’s growing, which we didn’t expect, and also minor volumes in Europe, South Africa, Latin America, so we think together with Ford we can really make a difference.”

Note: VW Beetle Final Edition pictured