On April 18, the new Volkswagen Beetle will be officially unveiled, with its debut staged over three continents and with a marketing alliance tie-up with MTV in tow – Veedub will launch the car as a world premiere in Shanghai, with MTV’s VJ guest hosting an exclusive MTV Sound System, followed by stage events in New York and Berlin.

Appearing at the event in New York will be The Black Eyed Peas, performing numbers from their latest album The Beginning as well their existing hits at Terminal 5, and in Berlin (E-Werk) the MTV World Stage Party will be headlined by Belgian duo 2manydjs performing a DJ set.

The World Stage in New York City will be the most widely distributed World Stage event to date and highlights of both events will be available online, streamed live; highlights from the show will be broadcast later on MTV channels around the world.

“The Beetle is an icon of the automotive world, just like MTV is an icon of the music world. In the context of this marketing alliance, we are taking the new Volkswagen directly to our customers and fans of the Volkswagen brand – and we are doing it globally,” said VW’s director of marketing for the Group and for Brand Passenger Cars, Luca de Meo.

Ah yes, the 21st Century Beetle, which is what the fuss is actually about. Well, nothing has been revealed officially about it, save VW saying that the exterior reinterprets the silhouette of the famous Beetle and combines stylistic elements borrowed from the original, merged with the latest technology. Which is saying a lot, but nothing – guess we’ll wait for April 18!

Feeling testy with that guy who just cut in front of you? Want to stand on your horn? Well, apparently that may not be such a good idea if you happen to be in a 2011 VW Jetta.

In the US, Volkswagen of America has announced a recall on 71,043 Jettas, manufactured from March last year to March this year, over a wiring issue layout regarding the horn and its ability to stifle things.

Yes, beep it and it could cause the car to stall, so it goes. Seems the wiring layout that controls the horn also controls the converter box, which governs the engine management system, as well as the lighting system and wipers. In rare circumstances, beeping the horn might short-circuit the converter box. Which isn’t good, presumably.

No related accidents or injuries have been reported, VW said. Until the rectification work is carried out, Jetta owners in the States will be a rather quiet lot, methinks.

Alongside the Go! MPV concept we showed you earlier, Volkswagen owned Italdesign Giugiaro also showed off the Tex concept at Geneva. A two-door coupe sitting on VW’s flexible MQB platform, the Tex is named after Italian comics hero, ranger Tex Willer, which Giorgetto Giugiaro and VW design boss Walter de’ Silva both love.

“We designed the Tex in actual fact thinking to the Volkswagen sports cars of the years to come. We intentionally kept a family feeling that would immediately identify it as a Wolfsburg product close to production. No visionary or futuristic choice was made, but it is rather a natural evolution of today’s cars with the addition of a few technologies that will shortly become available on the market,” said Fabrizio Giugiaro, deputy chairman and style manager of Italdesign.

The Tex sits very low at 1,355 mm, which is 49 mm lower than the Scirocco. It is however less wide than the Golf based coupe at 1,750 mm. The concept wears large 19-inch wheels that fill the wheel arches nicely.

Under the hood is VW’s Twin Drive plug-in hybrid system, which couples a 1.4-litre turbo internal combustion engine with a battery powered 85 kW electric motor. 400 Nm is available when both power sources combine. With a 7-speed DSG channeling power to the front wheels, the Tex is able to reach 100 km/h from standstill in about six seconds and reach a top speed of 220 km/h.

“As a full member of the global Volkswagen Group, Italdesign, now more than ever, is a creative center for fresh ideas and new concepts for our brands. The integration of Italdesign is a building block in our effort to take Volkswagen to the top of the automotive industry by 2018,” Martin Winterkorn, VW Group Chairman said of his company’s new family member.

Gallery after the jump.
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It’s only been a year since the Giugiaro penned Proton EMAS concept made its world debut, but much have changed since then.

At Geneva 2010, Italdesign Giugiaro revealed the EMAS for Proton, but two months later Volkswagen bought a majority stake in the famed design house, which includes its brand name, rights and patents.

At Geneva 2011, Giugiaro will make its debut as a VW Group brand, and will show off this Go! concept for Volkswagen. It looks a lot like the EMAS. In fact, Giugiaro refers to the Go! MPV as an evolution of the EMAS. Here’s what the design legend himself has to say:

“With this exercise I wanted to continue the design of a car able to offer maximum utilisation of its interior. The project started with the 1976 New York Taxi, and continued with the 1978 Megagamma, the 1998 Structura and then came to maturity with the 2010 Emas. The Go! is less than four metres long, but offers more passenger room than that of a large SUV and has a 400 up to 525-litre boot, ideal for city use,” Giorgetto Giugiaro explained.

It’s not a “rebadged” EMAS, as the Go! is a larger version of the max interior space-small footprint concept. The VW is 3,990 mm long (EMAS is 3,555 mm), while its wheelbase is 2,700 mm long, about 110 mm longer than the EMAS’. That’s a Passat wheelbase in a sub-4m car, which is pretty impressive.

The driver and three passengers sit on four identical and electronically adjustable seats. Its designers claim that the Go! has more interior room than a full size SUV.

Like in the EMAS, only the lower part of the windows can be electrically lowered. This solution reduces the weight that the electric window mechanism has to support, and is good enough for toll payment. But while the EMAS has conventional doors, the Go! has an electronically driven system that pushes the rear doors outwards and pulls it back parallel to the vehicle body. We’ve seen this before on VW’s Milano Taxi concept, although that one goes forward, not back.

The Go! sits on the VW Group’s MQB (Modularer Quer-Baukasten) modular transverse architecture. It is powered by VW’s electrical Blue-e-motion system that allows for 240 km in the combined cycle without emitting a single gram of CO2.

The appearance of the Go! and its similarities with the EMAS raises some questions. Who owns the design and ideas behind the EMAS? Is it Proton or VW via Giugiaro?

Gallery after the jump.
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