VW will expand the use of digital and social media to more finely tune its marketing to switch consumers to its new range of battery-powered vehicles. Giving the brand a fresher image is key to making good on Volkswagen’s USD25 billion push into electric cars.
Volkswagen is inviting communications and advertising agencies to pitch for its creative business in the coming months. The company plans to set up marketing hubs in its main regions that can tailor messages and react more quickly to changes.
VW (who has 12 brands under its belt) is seeking to move past the continuing diesel crisis and its new CFO Herbert Diess, who took charge on Friday last week will continue to oversee VW, the group’s largest unit by sales.
‘Volkswagen’ will be the focal point of the company’s EV push. The rollout starts with the I.D. hatchback in 2020, which will be followed by an SUV, minivan and sedan. The main thing to know about the new VW EV platform is that it is essentially a thick slab. It is flat, unlike the unibody stampings that have dominated the industry for the last several decades. The batteries live inside the slab under the driver’s feet. That low position of the battery pack helps to improve handling by giving the VW electric range a low center of gravity. It also gives the engineers a lot of control over the front-rear weight distribution.
But the real benefit is that you can put just about any kind of body on top of the slab, from a sedan or SUV to a microbus or pickup truck to a commercial delivery van.
