In a recent press release, Volkswagen indicated that they are increasing their production capacity for electric vehicles. The company is pursuing electric engines with vigor, committing themselves to the philosophy of “electric motors instead of internal combustion engines, batteries instead of fuel tanks.”
Audi (Volkswagen’s subsidiary) is getting ready to launch a new electric vehicle, their e-tron quattro, an electric SUV which is planned to have a 500-kilometer (310-mile) range and a 2018 release.
The company will be creating what they call an “E-factory”, at its Brussels plant to help facilitate the transition from traditional combustion to electric vehicles.
The new facility will have logistics running in the front, while the back of the facility is home to a production line for the 95-kilowatt hour battery packs used in the vehicles. The company won’t be creating its own cells, rather the facility will just assemble battery packs.
“We had to develop a whole series of new production technologies, all the way to automatic setting of the cell module into its mounts,” says Audi’s battery specialists in a recent press release.
After their new SUV was announced, Audi called out Tesla’s Model X by emphasizing Audi’s superior range for their vehicles.
Pricing information for the e-tron quattro is not yet available.
Volkswagen is not the only car company gunning for Tesla, as Fisker Inc. has recently announced their own electric vehicle predicted to get around 400 miles on one charge.
