The latest edition of world’s most popular electronics and technology trade-fair, the Consumer Global Electronics (CES), gets underway tomorrow. More than 3,500 companies will be taking part in the same Las Vegas spectacle that has seen the launches of the Microsoft Xbox and Blue-Ray CDs and Bill Gates’ formal retirement announcement in the past.
More recently, automotive brands have started placing more emphasis on CES as we move towards e-mobility, connected and electric cars. This means Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai-Kia, Toyota, Ford, General Motors, Faraday Future (the mysterious company backed by the people behind Aston Martin’s partner, Telv) and Volkswagen will have their booths at CES 2016. Moreover, GM and VW CEOs will be two of the only eight keynote speakers at the event.
After revealing the Golf R Touch Concept at CES 2015, VW will launch a new prototype that will illustrate the major changes that the car is set to go through in the next few years. The vehicle has been teased in a video by the company and looks to have been named ‘Budd.e’- a name trademarked by VW in Germany and that has reference to the Bulli Microbus Concept of 2011. As the name suggests, the concept was a modern take of the famous VW Microbus that was launched around 1950. The Bulli Microbus Concept could do 185 miles on a single charge of its’ lithium-ion battery pack and had a power output of 114 hp.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6MYED6nCSY[/youtube]
The highly-anticipated prototype will apparently go into production at a later stage but this claim has not been verified by VW. Apart from the concept, VW will give a glimpse of the latest developments in in-car infotainment that are on the verge of being launched onto the market- to be based around the ‘virtual cockpit’ technology that will be seen in upcoming Audi Q7.
This is another step taken by VW to move ahead from the ‘dieselgate’ and show its intention of pursuing ‘greener’ automotive technology for which critics feel the company has done little despite the popularity of Audi’s e-tron technology. The e-Golf and e-Up! electric vehicles have failed to create a strong presence and the same can be said for the likes of Golf GTE and Passat GTE. VW has planned an E.V. Phaeton that will take on the Tesla Model S but details about the model are still scarce.
http://volkswagen.gomexlive.com/vw_live_pk/
