VW won't rely on suppliers for hybrid hardware
Most of the manufacturers that have already introduced hybrid vehicles have produced most of the components in-house including Toyota, Honda and General Motors. In the last couple of years, a number of the largest automotive suppliers including Bosch and Continental have made moves to get into the business of making components and systems like electric motors, generators and power electronics. The mild hybrid system developed by Daimler and BMW that will come to market in 2009 uses a disk shaped motor manufactured by Bosch.
Volkswagen has yet to introduce a production hybrid system although the company has shown a number of concepts under both the VW and Audi brands and is field testing a plug-in hybrid version of the Golf. When a production VW hybrid does appear, the company plans to build the major systems itself. VW board member Werner Neubauer told Auto Motor und Sport that the company hopes to get a competitive advantage by developing and making its own powertrains for future vehicles. The only technology Neubauer doesn't plan to pursue is battery cells. Volkswagen has agreements with Sanyo to supply lithium ion cells for future hybrid and electric vehicles. We probably won't see any production hybrids out the VW group until 2010 at the earliest. Thanks to Christian for the tip!
[Source: Reuters, via German Car Blog]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
What 1:20PM (11/04/2008)
Smart, considering most of VWs past reliability problems can be traced to suppliers (coilpacks, window regulators, MAFs, O2 sensors etc)
Reply
estammel 12:15PM (11/04/2008)
Excellent point.
CanaDoc 1:15PM (11/05/2008)
Sam, that's a very cool picture of the A4 drivetrain - what show was that taken at?
Reply
Sam Abuelsamid 1:41PM (11/05/2008)
That was at this year's Detroit Show