Vehicles

Why your cup holders carry a surprising amount of science

  When Volkswagen calls the 2019 Jetta “all new,” it doesn’t just mean the chassis, the styling or the driver’s assistance technology. Even the cup holders received a rigorous engineering upgrade. America’s thirst for places to store a beverage in their vehicles dates back decades; it was only in the early ‘80s that the first viable cup holders built into a family vehicle appeared.  Today, Americans can’t get enough of them; the 2018 Volkswagen Atlas has 17 cup holders and the new 201

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Company

Volkswagen’s U.S. factory cheers the first grads from its on-site high school

Imagine as a high school student studying Chaucer in one period, and then walking a few steps to program a state-of-the-art welding robot or 3D printer. That’s a glimpse of what a school day is like at the high school held on the grounds of Volkswagen’s Chattanooga factory. Volkswagen Chattanooga, Chattanooga State Community College and Hamilton County Schools recently celebrated the first graduating class from the Mechatronics Akademie, a two-year mechatronics program at Volkswagen Chatt

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Motorsports

Why VW’s first electric race car previews the future of EVs

Last week, Volkswagen Motorsport revealed the first all-electric race car in the company’s history. Built  with the goal of setting a new record for the race up Pikes Peak in June, the I.D. R Pikes Peak combines cutting-edge motorsports engineering with Volkswagen’s growing expertise in electric mobility. And while the custom-built race car was designed for one purpose, it also previews the technology that will help make electric vehicles a more mainstream reality. Pikes Peak ranks as the wor

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Vehicles

Driving the first-generation Volkswagen Jetta with its 2019 successor

The 1980 model year was a big one for Volkswagen of America. Known at the time mostly for the Rabbit hatchback, VW brought out four new models that year – the Rabbit convertible, the Rabbit-based Pickup, the then-new Vanagon (including its hip camper variant) and an all-new sedan named after the German word for “jet stream:” the Jetta. It was not many years later that the Jetta became the best-selling German model in America, with more than 3.2 million models sold since. With the new 2019 Jet

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Community

Unleashing the Rrrrr-roar of the Golf Rs at WITW

For one weekend in April each year, the small village of Fontana, North Carolina, hosts a gathering of Volkswagen friends and owners casually known as WITW. What ties these cars together, apart from the VW badge, is that their engines all produce a beloved exhaust note. This year I joined over 100 of these special cars for some fun, both in the village and on the famous roads that surround it. The Golf R32 and Golf R cars have been a staple in the VW enthusiast community ever since the first

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Vehicles

A designer’s look at the 2019 Volkswagen Jetta

How do you design a new car? Boldly, and carefully, at the same time. The new 2019 Volkswagen Jetta reflects years of exacting design work by a dedicated team that had to anticipate American market trends, meet a host of engineering requirements and eventually craft a look that can appeal to millions without going stale. “Cars are always reflecting society, fashion, architecture—they are part of the development of mankind,” says Klaus Bischoff, head of design for Volkswagen. “From the begi

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Company

Meet the sausage that’s one of Volkswagen’s most popular products

In the official Volkswagen parts list, it's item no. 199 398 500 A -- one of the world’s most unique sausages, and a Volkswagen original celebrating its 45th year of production. First created in 1973, Volkswagen has made its own currywurst sausage ever since, and in the process turned it into a symbol of the company throughout Europe. While it’s a staple of the factory cafeterias in Wolfsburg and other European Volkswagen plants for breakfast or lunch, it’s also sold in grocery stores und

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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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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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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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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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