Volkswagen’s head of electronic development has confirmed that the brand’s Budd-e concept will eventually be on the car maker’s production lines. Revealed at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show recently, Dr Volkmar Tanneberger told Car Magazine that the Budd-e based model will arrive by year 2020.
“You will see a car that looks a lot like this, on the MEB platform, reach production,” Tanneberger told the publication. The electronics chief was referring to the Budd-e’s new Modular Electric Platform (MEB), which has been specifically designed for plug-in hybrid and full electric vehicles.
The Volkswagen Budd-e concept is said to be Volkswagen’s demonstration of what electric mobility could be like by year 2019. Underpinned by the new MEB platform, production PHEV or EV models would potentially be able to offer a pure electric range that is on par with today’s petrol-powered cars, thanks to the purpose-built architecture.
For now, Volkswagen claims that the Budd-e’s 101 kWh traction battery can be recharged from zero to 80% in just 15 minutes. Similar to the BMW i3, Budd-e has its batteries integrated into the vehicle floor.
Two electric motors, one for each axle in the Budd-e, forms a hybrid AWD system. A total range of 600 km has been claimed (based on the NEDC test cycle), and top speed is said to be 150 km/h. Cordless inductive charging is also a feature here.
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