The sluggish progress of Volkswagen’s hybrid and clean-fuel vehicles has left the automaker in the dust of European automakers like Renault and Volvo. Volkswagen is hoping to catch up to the pack by working with one of China’s largest automaker, BYD Auto, on a battery supply agreement. The tentative pact with BYD Auto comes on the heels of agreements by Sanyo and Toshiba to supply batteries to Volkswagen. The glut of lithium-ion batteries from this trio of industrial partners means that Volkswagen is trying to cover up a glaring weakness with overwhelming strength.
Volkswagen is still working on hybrid and plug-in models for worldwide sales within the next decade. The “Twin Drive” VW Golf concept was shopped around in 2008 for the U.S. and European markets as a preview of Volkswagen’s hybrid capabilities. The “Twin Drive” featured a 122-horsepower diesel engine and an 82-horsepower electric motor to boost the VW Golf’s modest fuel mileage. VW promoted the prototype’s 31-mile range of all-electric power before a single drop of diesel fuel was used. The automaker’s Audi imprint may be more lucrative in terms of hybrid vehicles with rumors of A1 and A4 plug-ins in the future.
Once Volkswagen begins to produce hybrid and plug-in vehicles, BYD Auto will be able to distribute its lithium-ion batteries worldwide. Battery manufacturer BYD, a Chinese producer of inexpensive but durable car batteries, owns the automaker and hopes to develop similar partnerships with other automakers. The struggling global economy and the high cost of producing these batteries in the hybrid auto industry’s early stages have hit BYD Auto as much as other automakers. The Volkswagen/BYD Auto partnership will leverage the former’s worldwide popularity to increase consumer exposure to BYD products.
We have covered plenty of auto partnerships on HybridMile that seem likely to produce short-term results for green transportation. The VW/BYD Auto partnership is unlikely to yield any results for the near future. Volkswagen may have nailed the battery portion of the green vehicle development process but it still needs to develop the green vehicle. The German automaker will not be able to outsource every step of its green vehicle evolution, which should prove for some interesting moments in the next few years.
