All VW care about is remaining the global No1 in terms of car sales, which is really sales of finance agreements (but that is the case for all the car manufacturers). EV is all image recovery after dieselgate.
Cupra is to SEAT what RS is to Audi so they won't have any leeway, every model is signed off by the same VW board. The branding is all to do with price point and market appeal, underneath they are all much the same. SEAT already have advanced plans for full EV and hybrid cars.
As far as daily transport is concerned I enjoy my plug-in hybrid, as daily transport goes it does all we require of it. Our local supermarket has 4 'free' EV charging points and so far I have never seen another car use one at the same time I've been there. We tried many and none of the current EVs gets anywhere near the claimed ranges if a hill, motorway or cold weather is involved - great for local journeys though - and the charging network in the UK is appalling.
Why am I saying all this? We are a long way from EV wins on Sunday sells on Monday but with almost 10% of UK buyers considering an EV next time I can see why they've started the racing offensive. Very few people wanted a Subaru before McRae and all that.
Much as we love racing for the adrenaline-fuelled action for the manufacturers it's just marketing to sell more finance in the form of car most will never own. The fuel that goes into it is just the fad of the moment and another Betamax moment is highly likely before we know which fuel wins.
Cupra is to SEAT what RS is to Audi so they won't have any leeway, every model is signed off by the same VW board. The branding is all to do with price point and market appeal, underneath they are all much the same. SEAT already have advanced plans for full EV and hybrid cars.
As far as daily transport is concerned I enjoy my plug-in hybrid, as daily transport goes it does all we require of it. Our local supermarket has 4 'free' EV charging points and so far I have never seen another car use one at the same time I've been there. We tried many and none of the current EVs gets anywhere near the claimed ranges if a hill, motorway or cold weather is involved - great for local journeys though - and the charging network in the UK is appalling.
Why am I saying all this? We are a long way from EV wins on Sunday sells on Monday but with almost 10% of UK buyers considering an EV next time I can see why they've started the racing offensive. Very few people wanted a Subaru before McRae and all that.
Much as we love racing for the adrenaline-fuelled action for the manufacturers it's just marketing to sell more finance in the form of car most will never own. The fuel that goes into it is just the fad of the moment and another Betamax moment is highly likely before we know which fuel wins.
