Company

How the Volkswagen Atlas Tanoak concept pickup came to life

The idea was simple – “build a modern Volkswagen pickup truck” – but the execution was anything but. The Volkswagen Atlas Tanoak concept vehicle unveiled at the New York International Auto Show reflects months of work by dozens of VW designers and engineers to build something that has not existed before; a real mid-size pickup,  designed for American tastes, from the highly flexible platform architectures of the Volkswagen Group. The result was the hit of the show, precisely because it mix

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Vehicles

VW Atlas Cross Sport Concept Launches the Atlas Family

There’s a certain kind of vehicle that American families have sought for years. In the 1950s, typical family cars had four doors, room for five people, and a trunk big enough to haul all of their luggage. They also sported enough power to hit highway speeds without worry — and the most successful ones also happened to capture the style of the era. That basic formula has held true through the decades, even as the shape of those vehicles has evolved. Five-passenger SUVs rank as the most in-dema

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Magazine

9 Things You Didn’t Know About the All-New Arteon

The camera flashes popped and the crowd “oohed” and “aahed” when Volkswagen unveiled the 2019 Volkswagen Arteon in February at the Chicago Auto Show. Two fastback sedans, in metallic red and yellow, rotated on the stage, and although the iconic VW logo adorned both trunks and hoods, the cars were unlike any Volkswagen vehicles attendees had ever seen. That was by design. With the Arteon, Volkswagen set out to establish a new design direction for the future, providing a glimpse of the next

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Magazine

Talking Tech: Driver Assistance Features Offer a Helping Hand

Subtle sensory cues belie a complex interaction of systems in Lane Assist and Blind Spot Monitor to help you help your car stay in control. When you lose focus for just a split second when driving, it can lead to an unintentional lane drift. Helping keep you in your lane with your focus on the road is one of the reasons VW designers and engineers created the Driver Assistance technologies like available Lane Assist and Blind Spot Monitor. But here’s what most people don’t realize: That tech

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Vehicles

The Atlas Tanoak asks: Should VW build a pickup for America again?

Once upon a time, Volkswagen assembled and sold pickups in America. Branded simply as the “VW Pickup,” known elsewhere around the world as the Volkswagen Caddy, the Rabbit derivative assembled in Pennsylvania was the brainchild of American executives in an era where front-wheel-drive trucks were popular due to high gas prices. After selling 77,513 models between 1979 and 1985, VW left the U.S. pickup market to others. Today, we ask: What might happen if Volkswagen brought a pickup back to the

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Company

VW’s electric I.D. aims for the pinnacle with R Pikes Peak

After a 34-year absence, Volkswagen will return to the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb this June with the I.D. R Pikes Peak – an all-electric race car designed with the goal of setting a new record for one of the world’s toughest motorsports events. Designed as a showcase of the technology behind Volkswagen’s upcoming I.D. production electric cars, the R Pikes Peak will race up the mountain on June 24th with three-time Pikes Peak champion Romain Dumas at the wheel. “The I.D. R Pikes Pe

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Company

From hands on to hands off, how autonomy will become reality

With the I.D. Vizzion concept car revealed at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, Volkswagen offered a look at what the self-driving car of 2030 might look like. But how, exactly, will we get to the future of vehicles without steering wheels or pedals? It’s been a long-standing source of debate around the auto industry, which has adopted five levels of autonomy to group these types of vehicles. Here’s our guide to how those five levels will mark the changes to come: 

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Community

#TBT: 1987 Volkswagen Golf Twin-Engine Pikes Peak car

No motorsports event carries quite the challenge or history of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. First completed in 1916, and run nearly every year since, Pikes Peak has become synonymous with masterful drivers and brutal machines able to speed up the 12-mile, 156-curve route, where one mistake can lead to a dangerous lesson in gravity. In the 1980s, Pikes Peak was the second home of the Group B rally cars – turbocharged monsters of road and gravel rallying. And it was a top target for

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Magazine

The New 2018 Volkswagen Passat GT, an American-born Sport Sedan

Like all good cars, the 2018 Volkswagen Passat GT began with an idea and a few people in a garage. That garage happens to be in Chattanooga, Tennessee, at Volkswagen’s growing North American Engineering Planning Center, just around the corner from the factory that assembles the Passat and the VW Atlas. The idea: How to bring a touch of Volkswagen’s performance heritage into midsize sedans. The resulting 2018 Passat GT is scheduled to arrive later this year as the first model developed and

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Vehicles

Meet the I.D. CROZZ, a Preview of Volkswagen’s First Electric SUV Expected in 2020

Electric vehicles are the future of transportation, but making that future a reality will require a lot of innovation and manufacturing know-how. Today, Volkswagen unveiled one of its major steps toward an electric future with the first North American appearance of the I.D. CROZZ concept vehicle in Los Angeles – a four-door, all-wheel-drive SUV that previews the next-generation Volkswagen electric vehicle anticipated to arrive in America in 2020. Built from the same platform that is expected

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Company

VW supports John F. Kennedy Center’s VSA Emerging Young Artists Program

Every fall, employees working at Volkswagen Group of American (VWGoA) headquarters in Herndon, Va., enjoy a more colorful, creative and vibrant view on their way in and out of the office. This is because Volkswagen supports VSA, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ international organization on arts and disability. Since 2002, VWGoA has supported the VSA Emerging Young Artists Program, a Jean Kennedy Smith Arts and Disability Program, recognizing talented young artists with

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Company

Innovating the Future at VW’s Electronics Research Lab

l;;lkLocated in Silicon Valley, Volkswagen Group’s Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) is the epicenter of the company’s vehicle electronics expertise in North America and its largest research facility outside of Germany. More than 160 ERL engineers, social scientists, researchers, product designers, and psychologists work with teams across the globe to develop technologies for future generations of vehicles. From autonomous driving to connected mobility, the high-tech lab is charged with c

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Community

Fifty years on, Bruce Meyers explains what makes Baja desert racing so essential

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Baja 1000, one of the world’s most unique and challenging motorsports competitions. Today, it’s a grueling and dangerous test of endurance; a non-stop dash through dirt roads and terrain by hundreds of stock and custom-built race cars or trucks of up to several hundred horsepower. Yet to hear Bruce Meyers tell it, it all started as basically a dare. At 91 years old, Meyers stands as a living link to the cradle of Southern California hot-rod cultu

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Vehicles

Saving the manuals, one Golf Alltrack at a time

Last year, just 3.1 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States came with a manual transmission, the lowest share in decades according to U.S. government data. Despite the benefits of driving feel, social acceptance among enthusiasts and even anecdotal evidence of how three-pedal cars can confuse carjackers, many automakers and their customers have chosen to shun the stick shift. But not Volkswagen. The first Volkswagen Beetle sold in America came with a manual transmission. That wa

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