In what was originally seen as an advanced April Fools’ Day joke, Volkswagen has confirmed that it is seriously and really re-branding its electric vehicles as “Voltswagen” in a move to differentiate it from its internal combustion engined counterparts.
The move, which will happen primarily in the United States is in line with the company’s increasingly all electric future.
CNBC got wind of an accidentally posted press release on its website dated April 29, 2021 (it has since been taken down). It said that the name change would cover all of the carmaker’s U.S. operations though the new “Voltswagen of America” would continue to remain an operating unit of the larger Volkswagen Group of America.
The name change is not expected to carry upward to the parent company in Germany, Volkswagen Group. The brand will maintain its recently redesigned VW logo in both instances.
CNBC reports that Voltswagen will be placed as an exterior badge on all EV models, and gasoline vehicles will have the company’s iconic VW emblem only, as they now do. They said that the VW logo will be on a dark blue background on ICE models, while EVs would display the logo on a light blue background.
Volkswagen announced ambitious plans surrounding electrification in the next few years. It expects 70 percent of its European sales to be all electric by 2030 (50 percent in the U.S. and China). It has also announced that it will stop the development of its next-generation internal combustion engines as well.
UPDATE: It seems that this re-branding is just a marketing stunt done by Volkswagen to draw attention to its electric vehicles. According to its sources within the company, Volkswagen of America is not serious about changing its name even after issuing a statement saying it would.
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