Future Movers: VW’s Electric Car To Charge 500KM In 15 Minutes

Tired of walking? Future Movers is our roundup of last week’s biggest news in powered transport. Whether it’s a car, a bike, a plane or something in between, you’ll find the Aussie angle on it right here.

Volkswagen’s 2019 Electric Car Said To Get 300 Miles On A 15-Minute Charge

As much as we judge pure electric cars primarily on their range these days — and that’s one of the best selling points of Tesla versus its competition from Nissan and BMW and Toyota — the key problem that still persists is the fact that batteries take a long time to charge.

VW’s ‘normal’ electric car, planned for release in or around 2019, is rumoured to charge its 480km-plus battery in 15 minutes. That’s a massive improvement on the current state of the art, which at the moment comes from Tesla’s Superchargers, themselves able to add around 250 kilometres of range in 30 minutes under ideal conditions.

Porsche Launches Digital Lab In Berlin

“Porsche is moving one step closer to digital transformation.” That’s the tagline on this press release announcing Porsche’s new Digital Lab in Berlin, which isn’t even necessarily directly connected to the company’s range of sports cars — it’s all about IT innovation and the Internet of Things.

It follows a trend we’re seeing across the entire car industry — companies that have built steel and aluminium performance vehicles and engines and drivetrains for decades are now throwing their considerable might into silicon and copper and gold, turning cars into rolling networks and supercomputers. Very cool stuff, when it eventually hits the roads.

Bugatti Chiron Hybrid Under Performance Evaluation

Bugatti’s newest and equally most bonkers hypercar might be getting a dose of electric power, if this rumour is to be believed. It was widely reported during the Chiron’s development that it might get a hybrid petrol-electric setup supplementing that amazing W16 engine, and that might still happen.

The hybrid version of the car — all about performance, not about city driving efficiency although that might be a pleasant side effect — is “under consideration” according to an interview between Autocar magazine and Bugatti’s CEO.


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