As fossil fuels slowly become harder to obtain, automotive manufacturers around the world are turning to alternative fuel forms to keep business alive. Almost every brand has now jumped on the electric bandwagon, but only a few are exploring hydrogen technology.
It seems that Volkswagen has no plans to enter the fuel cell segment as a recent report out of the UK revealed that the German brand believes the technology is more suited to the commercial sector as opposed to passenger vehicles.
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Mathias Rabe, VW's technical chief spoke about this topic with Autocar, but revealed that it was a definite "no" from the German giant. “As a group, we look in that direction, but for Volkswagen in the near future, it’s not an option”, Rabe said.
Backing up the point about commercial vehicles, Rabe explained that it only takes a few minutes to fill a hydrogen tank, and the only emissions are water vapours.
So while Volkswagen doesn't seem to keen on the whole hydrogen front, the German brand is steaming ahead with electric vehicle development, with the whole ID line-up set to be battery-powered.
Spoken about as the "most important" car for the brand since the iconic Beetle, the ID.3 is set to change the EV market upon release.
In terms of size, think of the ID.3 as being almost identical to the Golf but with plenty of added smarts. Volkswagen have done plenty of work to optimize the EV's packaging, making it quite impressive on paper while simultaneously defying how EVs and hybrids of the past have had to make compromises on space.
In Europe, ID.3 pricing is set to start at under €30,000 (NZ$51,580) — with Volkswagen still to confirm exact figures. But that hasn't stopped over 30,000 people from pre-ordering one.