Emergency crews were at the Tesco store on Meadow Place Road in Edinburgh this morning.
16:51, 18 Feb 2026Updated 16:58, 18 Feb 2026
The crash involved a car and a male pedestrian (Image: Alan Simpson)
A man has died following a crash in a Scots supermarket car park, which an air ambulance was deployed to. Emergency crews raced to Tesco on Meadow Place Road in Edinburgh this morning.
An alarm was raised at around 9am today following a crash with a pedestrian and a blue Volkswagen Polo. An air ambulance attended the scene but a 66-year-old man, who was treated at the scene, died a short time later.
His next of kin are aware. There were no other reported injuries. The area at the car park was closed for enquiries to be carried out and reopened around 1.20pm.
Photos taken at the scene show a heavy police and ambulance presence with the area cordoned off with police tape.
One resident reported a large police presence with “loads of four-by-fours” and “an intense” scene. The local told Edinburgh Live: “My son’s dad was driving past and there were loads of four-by-four, police cars.
“There was an extremely heavy police presence there. He called to say, ‘What’s going on?’ He said it was quite intense.”
Sergeant Paul Ewing said: “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the man who has died. Enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances of what occurred and I am appealing to anyone who has information to come forward.
“In addition, anyone with dash-cam footage which may assist is asked to please contact us. Anyone with information should call 101 quoting incident number 0688 of 18 February, 2026.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson continued: “Road Policing officers are appealing for information following a fatal crash in Edinburgh. The incident happened around 9am on Wednesday, 18 February, 2026, within a supermarket car park on Meadow Place Road, and involved a pedestrian and a blue Volkswagen Polo.
“Emergency services, including an air ambulance, attended and the pedestrian, a 66-year-old man, was treated at the scene however died a short time later. His next of kin are aware.
“There were no other reported injuries. The area at the car park was closed for enquiries to be carried out and reopened around 1.20pm.”
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson earlier added: “We received a call at 09:05 to attend a road traffic collision on Meadow Place Road, Edinburgh. We dispatched two ambulances, a paramedic response unit (PRU), a critical care paramedic (CCP), and an air ambulance to the scene.”
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New interior photos of an upcoming Volkswagen EV reveal the company’s previously announced scheme to bring back certain physical buttons will soon be a reality. What’s being revealed is a small, budget EV called the ID. Polo that may never see a U.S. release, but the company has made it clear that this is the new button plan for its cars generally.
As previously noted by Gizmodo, there have been rumblings for some time of consumer exhaustion around car interiors that resemble an array of tablet computers. VW is not, to be clear, issuing a full-throated rebuke of infotainment screens by adding what looks like a handful of new physical buttons to this model—and this update also addresses a totally separate problem unique to the controls on Volkswagen steering wheels—but it’s at least a fresh data point showing a greater number of physical buttons inside a car rather than fewer.
Aspects of the company’s earlier pivot away from certain physical buttons were deemed a failure by VW itself, with design chief Andreas Mindt speaking about the issue with extraordinary candor to British car magazine Autocar. “We will never, ever make this mistake any more. On the steering wheel, we will have physical buttons. No guessing any more. There’s feedback, it’s real, and people love this. Honestly, it’s a car. It’s not a phone: it’s a car,” Mindt said.
VW fans were annoyed at Mindt and his colleagues perhaps most of all because of confusing, non-clicky buttons that require the driver to squint down at the steering wheel to perform basic functions like changing their music volume.
Several essential buttons that had been removed, Mindt said, “will be in every car that we make from now on. We understood this,” he told Autocar, adding, “From the ID. 2all onwards, we will have physical buttons for the five most important functions—the volume, the heating on each side of the car, the fans and the hazard light—below the screen.” According to the naming scheme laid out by Volkswagen, what Mindt confusingly referred to in this case as the “ID. 2all” pretty clearly refers to the ID. Polo.
Kai Grünitz, whose title at the company is “board member for technical development,” said in a new press release that what’s being unveiled now is the company’s “new interior architecture, starting with the all-new ID. Polo,” and that includes “an intuitive operating environment with physical buttons and newly structured screens.”
Elsewhere, the release notes “Separate buttons for climate functions and the hazard warning lights are integrated into a strip below the infotainment screen.”
As far as I know, consumers made it abundantly clear many years ago that they just want the steering wheel to be good (and to not fly off while they’re driving). But if you’re the one driver in the entire world who hates circular steering wheels in particular, congrats on another win!
We could be witnessing the start of the renaissance for real buttons in cars, courtesy of Volkswagen’s ID. Polo. The German automaker unveiled the interior of its upcoming compact EV, which features real buttons, switches and even a knob for audio controls.
“We have created an interior that feels like a friend from the very first contact,” Volkswagen’s chief designer, Andreas Mindt, said in a press release. “Clear physical buttons provide stability and trust, warm materials make it appealing, and charming details such as the new retro views of the instruments show the typical Volkswagen wink.”
Volkswagen
Last year, Mindt told Autocar that Volkswagen would commit to reintroducing physical buttons for the most important functions “in every car we make from now on,” starting with the ID. 2all concept car that has since evolved to become the ID. Polo. The EV maker backed up those claims since the ID. Polo will feature tangible buttons underneath the infotainment display, along with a steering wheel that’s packed with even more clear buttons. Between the driver and passenger, Volkswagen even included a knob that can adjust audio volume or shuffle between tracks and radio stations.
Volkswagen
Besides the renewed emphasis on physical controls, Volkswagen still included a 10.25-inch digital cockpit behind the steering wheel. In the center, there’s a nearly 13-inch touchscreen that serves as the infotainment system. For a retro throwback, the ID. Polo can swap its cockpit display to one that’s inspired by the classic Golf I from the 1980s through a button on its steering wheel or with the infotainment touchscreen.
The ID. Polo is expected to be the first of four new EVs in Volkswagen’s small and compact car segment, which will see releases in European markets starting this year. However, it’s not all good news, since Volkswagen has no plans to release the compact EV in the US.
The Volkswagen ID. Buzz, which as far as I can tell is the only vehicle on the American market that counts as a fully electric consumer minivan, is being paused, according to a Friday report from Carscoops. A representative of the company told that site, “Following a careful assessment of current EV market conditions, we have made the strategic decision not to move forward with [model year 2026] ID. Buzz production for the U.S. market.”
The company told Carscoops that rumors spreading through dealerships about the car being completely axed are wrong, and that the company “gave dealers this direction: The ID. Buzz continues to serve as an important halo product for the Volkswagen brand, and safeguarding its market presence remains a top priority.” VW also mentioned some kind of “transition” to a 2027 model.
In spite of this being the official line from its parent company, a car getting completely taken out of production for the U.S. market in 2026 is probably not a great sign. If I were a company killing a product, and I didn’t want the public to have a big tantrum about it, I might claim to be pausing it, and then quietly announce that actually it’s gone forever a little later when the story will get less attention.
Despite being probably the most interesting car on U.S. roads right now, the ID. Buzz has no niche to slot into. It’s relatively compact, with dual sliding doors, and three rows of seats. As a minivan and an EV, it theoretically has practical applications as a family car that costs very little to run over the long term.
But none of these considerations trump material reality for most people with kids. At-home EV charging in the U.S. is still pretty rare unless one deliberately installs it. Densely populated urban areas have chargers all over the place, but the kinds of suburban homes where people with kids live still tend not to be hospitable to the EV life.
But the price stands to reason, because the ID. Buzz only makes sense as a luxury splurge for well-heeled people interested in the novelty and nostalgic look. And that’s a shame.
Three years ago, when hype for the ID. Buzz was at its peak, Jill Lepore profiled it for The New Yorker, noting the difference between the new VW minivan and its predecessor, technically called the Volkswagen Type 2, but better known as the Minibus. She found it a bit gadget-heavy.
“The Buzz, in the way of new E.V.s, is more swoosh than boing, less a machine you operate—pulling levers, cranking wheels, pumping brakes—than a computer you ride around in while its screen flashes officious little reminders at you. This is what new cars do, what they are. It’s not what old cars did, or what they were.”
Is this the end, or just a little break? Dark clouds are forming over the U.S. economy, but seem to be dissipating, and the politics around EVs in the U.S. range from iffy to overtly hostile, but charging infrastructure is expanding anyway. Volkswagen, which is currently cutting production and exploring AI, probably isn’t being coy here: I doubt the company knows what will happen next with the ID. Buzz in the U.S. But if it comes back in 2027, it would be nice to see the next version take more cues from its humble, practical ancestor.
Los Angeles — A vintage blue VW bus that became an unlikely symbol of resilience after it survived a California wildfire made its public debut this week, shiny and like-new after Volkswagen spent months restoring the damaged vehicle.
The bus went viral in January when an Associated Press photographer captured it looking surprisingly unharmed by the deadly Palisades Fire, a spot of blue and white dwarfed by the charred remains of a Malibu neighborhood. Volkswagen saw the accompanying AP story and reached out to the owner, Megan Weinraub. Upon closer inspection, VW technicians discovered that while the bus had survived, it had smoke damage and blistered paint, rust and a window busted by the heat.
In its restoration, the 1977 Type 2 Microbus named Azul – Spanish for the color blue – again brought people together as technicians consulted the broader community of VW enthusiasts in a shared mission to revive what was a quirky middle-aged vehicle.
Megan Weinraub, right, looks at her restored VW bus, which survived the Pacific Palisades fire in January, at the LA Auto Show on Nov. 20, 2025, in Los Angeles.
Mark J. Terrill / AP
“It melted and Volkswagen saved it,” Weinraub said Thursday at the LA Auto Show, standing with the bus’s previous owner, Preston Martin. “It was a giant relief because it wasn’t my first priority with everything going on.”
While Weinraub calls the microbus “Azul,” it became known as the “Magic bus” on social media, CBS News Los Angeles points out.
“I was lucky and grateful to have the opportunity for them to restore it because I wouldn’t have been able to restore it myself,” she told the station.
Weintraub and Martin still can’t believe the bus they wrote off as a goner is now ready to take them on another surfing adventure. The last time they saw the pre-burned Azul was two days before the Palisades Fire broke out, when they parked the bus near Weinraub’s apartment after surfing.
Megan Weinraub, left, and Preston Martin, the former owner, pose in front of her Volkswagen bus after seeing it for the first time om Oct. 27, 2025, in Malibu, Calif., after it was restored by VW.
Mark J. Terrill / AP
Mark J. Terrill, the AP photographer who captured the original image, was on hand when Weinraub and Martin saw the bus for the first time after its restoration in late October.
Volkswagen hauled the microbus to its Oxnard facility west of Los Angeles where it houses historic VW vehicles. Vehicle technicians Farlan Robertson and Gunnar Wynarski sourced hard-to-find parts, got creative and reached out to a lot of people.
“At the bottom of it it was to try to take the vehicle that everyone else saw and do what we could to improve upon it, but not change it,” said Robertson, “to actually have it come out and be the revived, resurrected vehicle returned to its former glory.”
The logo of Volkswagen can be seen in a brand pavilion at the Autostadt in Wolfsburg. Swen Pförtner/dpa
German carmaker Volkswagen is trimming production due to weak demand, with its Zwickau and Dresden plants in eastern Germany pausing manufacturing for one week from October 6, the company told dpa.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine daily, which first reported on the issue, said Volkswagen’s manufacturing plant in Emden, on the North Sea, could be affected too. The company was in talks with the works council there, with a decision possibly due next week.
A decision to cut production at VW’s factory in the north-western city of Osnabrück has already been taken, with at least one closure day per week scheduled until the end of the year, VW confirmed. There will also be a one-week pause in October.
“Volkswagen adjusts the production programme in its plants to the current customer demand for the models built there,” a company spokesman in VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters said.
“In some plants this will lead to shift cancellations in the coming weeks.”
The main reason is weak demand for electric vehichles (EVs), which are built in Zwickau and Emden. Osnabrück is suffering from weak sales of the convertibles built there.
At the Wolfsburg headquarters, by contrast, there will continue to be extra shifts on almost all weekends until the end of the year, the spokesman noted. The reason is strong demand for the Golf, Tiguan and Tayron combustion-engine vehicles built there.
Unlike the EV plants in Emden and Zwickau, Wolfsburg only produces combustion-engine models, which are currently in demand. Extra shifts have been in place since May.
“Demand for Tiguan, Tayron and Golf [cars] is currently very good,” brand chief Thomas Schäfer said at the works meeting earlier this month. “To cope with this, we are running additional shifts in Wolfsburg.”
For car buyers interested in electric vehicles, the clock is ticking to take advantage of federal tax credits on new and used EVs before they expire on Sept. 30.
Introduced in 2022 under the Inflation Reduction Act signed, the federal tax credits — $7,500 for new and $4,000 for used — are being phased out due to President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is also ending a series of other clean energy credits over the next several months.
With just one week to go until the expiration date of the Biden-era EV credit, customers are flocking to dealerships to cash in. EV sales reached a record high in August, with new EV sales up 17.7% year over year and used EV sales up 59% for the same period, data from Cox Automotive shows.
“As we approach the sunset of the IRA tax credit, we expect September to mirror August’s elevated sales activity, driven by time-sensitive purchase and lease offers,” Cox Automotive said in its report.
The findings jibe with data from Cars Commerce — whose holdings include Cars.com — that shows a 33% surge in EV demand since last year as shoppers rush to take advantage of the credits. The automotive tech company also found that used EVs are on dealers’ lots for 46 days on average, a nearly 30% decrease from last last year that indicates the sector of the EV market is rising in popularity.
Deals to be had
Anxious to clear out EV inventory before the arrival of new models in November, dealerships have been offering their own incentives, such as monthly lease rates that are are as little as 1% of the car’s sticker price.
The Emich Volkswagen dealership in Denver has lowered EV lease rates to $40 a month. “This deal is absurd and it’s never gonna happen again,” Philip De Jong, the marketing director at Emich, told CBS MoneyWatch.
One customer at the Denver dealership, Stephen Hynes, told CBS News’ senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave that that he would save as much as $400 a month compared with his last car payment.
“I’m getting an electric vehicle now; it’s because of this tax credit,” said Hynes.
A chart below from Cars.com shows which vehicles are still eligible for the federal tax credit, based on information from Environmental Protection Agency.
What will happen after the tax credit ends?
September 2025 could end up being the “single biggest EV month in history,” Tim Horvick, owner of the San Tan Ford dealership outside of Phoenix, told CBS’ Van Cleave. But come October, when the EV credit is no longer in effect, the sales landscape could shift.
“It is the concern,” Horvick said. “It could be challenging.”
As a result of the coming end of the tax credit, along with other policy changes introduced by the Trump administration, automakers have already slowed their production of electric vehicles, shifting their attention to more popular gas and hybrid models, CBS News reported.
But not all experts believe the expiration of the tax credit will have a huge effect on future EV sales, and that’s simply because sales were low to begin with.
EV sales “can’t fall off a cliff because they’re not very high,” Patrick Anderson, CEO of Anderson Economic Group, a Michigan-based economic consultancy, told CBS News’ Van Cleave. “They’re gonna fall off a small hill because that’s as high as they got.”
Electric vehicles make up about 7% of new car sales, according to Anderson Economic Group. A recent analysis from Kelley Blue Book shows EV sales in August accounted for a record 9.9% of total car sales, up from 9.1% in July.
Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. Before joining the business and finance vertical, she worked at “60 Minutes,” CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program.
German car manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) has been handed a massive fine in Brazil over allegations of modern slavery on an Amazonian farm during the country’s military dictatorship.
The Redenção labour court, in the Amazonian state of Pará, on Friday ordered VW’s Brazilian subsidiary to pay compensation of 165 million reais ($30.4 million) over the illegal exploitation of workers in the 1970s and 1980s, the Brazilian public prosecutor’s office for labour said.
According to the office, the fine is the highest ever imposed in Brazil for modern slave labour.
The VW subsidiary has announced it will appeal the decision.
“With a 72-year tradition, the company consistently upholds the principles of human dignity and strictly adheres to all applicable labour laws and regulations,” said Volkswagen do Brasil.
The allegations relate to conditions at the Fazenda Vale do Rio Cristalino farm, which belonged to a subsidiary of Volkswagen do Brasil.
The cattle farm was founded with the support of the military dictatorship as part of a national strategy to develop and colonize the Amazon region.
The investigation began in 2019 after priest Ricardo Rezende, then regional coordinator of the Rural Pastoral Commission, documented the case.
An out-of-court settlement failed in 2023. As a result, the company was finally sued in December 2024.
According to the allegations, hundreds of temporary workers at the farm, also known as Fazenda Volkswagen, were subjected to long working days and degrading working conditions.
Armed guards and a system of debt bondage prevented the workers from leaving the farm, investigators said.
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s labor court on Friday ordered Volkswagen to pay 165 million reais (about $30 million) for collective moral damages after workers were subjected to slave-like conditions at a company-owned farm in the Amazon during the 1970s and 1980s. Prosecutors said it is the largest such reparation in the country’s history.
The Labor Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation in 2019 after obtaining extensive documentation from a local priest who had tracked the case for decades. Following further inquiries and witness testimony, prosecutors formally charged Volkswagen in 2024.
The court accepted the charges that hundreds of workers were subjected to degrading conditions between 1974 and 1986 at a farm in Para state, owned by Volkswagen through a subsidiary. The farm was used for cattle ranching and logging.
According to court filings, about 300 workers were hired under irregular contracts to clear the forest and prepare pastures. They were monitored by armed guards, lived in precarious housing, received insufficient food and were forced to stay on the farm under a system of debt bondage. No medical care was provided, even to those who contracted malaria.
“These practices constituted one of the largest cases of slave labor exploitation in Brazil’s recent history,” the Labor Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
In his ruling, Judge Otavio Bruno da Silva Ferreira said evidence confirmed the farm belonged to Volkswagen and that conditions met the legal definition of slave labor.
“Slavery is a ‘present past,’ because its marks remain in Brazilian society, especially in labor relations,” Ferreira wrote. He added that the legacy of Brazil’s colonial slave system continues to shape social structures and that recovering this memory is essential to understanding current realities and guiding antidiscrimination judgments.
Volkswagen’s Brazilian headquarters said in a statement it will appeal the decision. The company said that in its 72 years of operation in Brazil, it has “consistently defended the principles of human dignity and strictly complied with all applicable labor laws and regulations.”
“Volkswagen reaffirms its unwavering commitment to social responsibility, which is intrinsically linked to its conduct as a legal entity and employer,” the company said.
Brazil enslaved more people from Africa than any other country, according to estimates from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database. It was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery, in 1888.
Unlike in most three-row SUVs, sitting at the back of the Buzz was a comfortable experience for my 6-foot-3 body. We also piled four WIRED colleagues into the van for a long loop around the neighborhood, and everyone had plenty of room.
With all the seats in use, the cargo space behind the third row is 18.6 cubic feet. That’s enough for a large grocery haul or several peoples’ luggage. The third row of seats can be folded down to make a flat surface in the back, and VW offers an insert for the rear cargo area that comes with two handy drawers. If you need more space, the third row can be removed entirely.
To help keep items from sliding around, the Buzz is equipped with velcro partitions that are stored in the walls of the cargo area. The center console is removable and moveable. You can move it from between the front seats to the second row in vehicles equipped with captain’s chairs. Or just pull it out entirely. One nice touch: The dividers in the center console double as a bottle opener and an ice scraper.
Meanwhile, VW has gone full USB-C. Every seat gets at least one charging port. There are seven ports in total. There’s also one 15-watt USB port near the rearview mirror to accommodate a dash cam. A 110-volt, 150-watt power outlet is available under the passenger seat.
This all before you get into the world of aftermarket add-ons, where you are sure to find a plethora of options for the Buzz. It’s all very clever, and a reminder that the VW bus is a canvas for your lifestyle.
Finally, the issues that have famously been plaguing VW’s infotainment system for years have been solved. The 12.9-inch display was easy to use, navigate, and more importantly, had little in the way of latency. VW has added ChatGPT integration for the voice assistant, but that requires a network connection, and I wasn’t able to fully test it, since most of the drive was in areas where cell service was spotty or absent. When I was able to test it, it returned a solid answer in a timely fashion.
Weirdly though, as an adventure vehicle, the Buzz does not ship with a dog or camping mode. When asked about this, Volkswagen said it was looking into it. More than a few journalists inquired about these features, which are found in Rivians and Teslas and make all sorts of sense for the Buzz. So don’t be surprised if those modes show up in an OTA software update.
How Much Again?
Which brings us to the second sticking point of the ID Buzz. The RWD Pro S model starts at $59,995, and this is because Volkswagen essentially offers a mid-level trim as the entry-level model. For example, this starting configuration ships with 12-way adjustable heated and vented front seats with a massage feature. Heated seats are also standard for the second row. It has three-zone climate controls.
All those USB ports are also standard. So is that 110V outlet. For those late night raves, a 30-color ambient lighting feature is standard.
Volkswagen is building all its ID Buzzes at a single factory in Hanover, Germany. This means US buyers cannot claim an EV purchase tax credit, since the Inflation Reduction Act requires vehicles to be assembled in North America to qualify for the tax break. If the automaker offers a lease, then the van does become eligible.
Volkswagen is aware this is a niche vehicle. While the buzz around the Buzz has died down, it will still likely sell out in its first year. VW would not comment on whether it will offer a cheaper trim option in the future or whether it plans to expand its production to the US.
Yet even with its lack of a true entry-level price and a range that, while underreported, is less than anticipated, the ID Buzz is exactly what it should be. It is a fun-to-drive nostalgia machine with enough storage and utility to make it a solid weekend hauler for families who enjoy an active lifestyle. And your five children will be quite comfortable in the back as you bore them to tears with your Summer of Love playlist.
Volkswagen says auto industry headwinds mean the German automaker can’t rule out plant closings in its home country, while the company is also dropping a longstanding job protection pledge that would have barred layoffs through 2029.
“The European automotive industry is in a very demanding and serious situation,” Oliver Blume, Volkswagen Group CEO, said in a statement Monday.
He cited new competitors entering the European markets, Germany’s deteriorating position as a manufacturing location and the need to “act decisively.”
A Volkwagen plant closure in Germany would mark the first time the automaker, which was formed in 1937, had closed a domestic factory, according to Bloomberg News. It would also be the first time the company had shuttered any of its manufacturing plants since its U.S. facility in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, closed in 1988, the dpa news agency reported.
Thomas Schaefer, the CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars division, said efforts to reduce costs were “yielding results” but that the “headwinds have become significantly stronger.”
Mounting competition from China
European automakers are facing increased competition from inexpensive Chinese electric cars. Volkswagen’s half-year results indicate it will not achieve its target for 10 billion euros ($11 billion) in cost savings by 2026, the company said.
The discussion around closures and layoffs is for the company’s core Volkswagen brand. The brand saw operating earnings sag to 966 million euros ($1.1 billion) from 1.64 billion euros in the year-earlier period.
The group also includes luxury makes Audi and Porsche, which have higher profit margins than the mass-market vehicles made by Volkswagen, as well as SEAT and Skoda.
The company has sought to cut costs through early retirements and buyouts that avoid forced layoffs, but is now saying those measures may not be enough. Volkswagen has some 120,000 workers in Germany.
Union officials and worker representatives attacked the idea of closings or layoffs. Management’s approach is “not only shortsighted, but dangerous, as it risks destroying the heart of Volkswagen,” Thorsten Groeger, chief negotiator with VW for the IG Metall industrial union, said on the union’s website.
Top employee representative Daniela Cavallo said that “management has failed… The consequence is an attack on our employees, our locations and our labor agreements. There will be no plant closings with us.”
The governor of Germany’s Lower Saxony region, Stephan Weil, who sits on the company’s board of directors, agreed the company needed to take action but called on Volkswagen to avoid plant closings by relying on alternative ways to reduce costs: “The state government will pay particularly close attention to that,” he said in a statement reported by the dpa news agency.
The European Union in July moved to impose provisional tariffs on Chinese EVs, although the EU will only collect the levies if talks with Beijing fail to yield a trade deal. The levies would consist of 17.4% on cars from BYD, 19.9% from Geely and 37.6% for vehicles exported by China’s state-owned SAIC. Geely’s brands include Polestar and Sweden’s Volvo, while SAIC owns Britain’s MG.
President Joe Biden in May announced tariffs of up to 100% on Chinese EVs, quadrupling the current tariff of 25%.
Rivian stock (RIVN) surged on Wednesday after the EV maker announced a joint venture deal with Volkswagen (VWAGY), crucially bringing fresh capital into Rivian’s coffers.
Volkswagen announced it intends to work with Rivian to create “next generation software-defined vehicle (SDV) architectures” to be used in both companies’ future EVs. The joint venture will use Rivian’s “zonal hardware design” and platform as the foundation of future vehicles, as well as Rivian’s electrical architecture expertise for the vehicles. Rivian will license its existing IP rights to the joint venture.
In exchange, Volkswagen will invest an initial $1 billion in Rivian through an “unsecured convertible note that will convert into Rivian’s common stock,” with up to $4 billion in additional investment staged through 2026 for a total infusion of $5 billion.
Irving, Calif.-based Rivian’s shares closed up 23.2% on Wednesday.
“The partnership fits seamlessly with our existing software strategy, our products, and partnerships. We are strengthening our technology profile and our competitiveness,” Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume said in a statement.
“Not only is this partnership expected to bring our software and associated zonal architecture to an even broader market through Volkswagen Group’s global reach, but this partnership also is expected to help secure our capital needs for substantial growth,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said in the statement.
This is exciting! Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume and I are thrilled to announce the formation of a joint venture between our two companies. This partnership brings Rivian’s software and zonal electronics platform to a broader market through Volkswagen Group’s global reach and… pic.twitter.com/11XVNUo89J
For Rivian, the news of fresh capital allays concerns over the company’s runway as it bridges to the release of its next-generation vehicles, the R2 and R3 mass-market SUVs. In terms of its cash cushion, Rivian said it had $5.98 billion at the end of Q1 versus $7.86 billion at the end of Q4.
“This news is meaningfully positive for RIVN as the agreement should provide the company with access to capital to not only fund the ramp-up of production of the R2 at its Normal, IL facility but also to build a new facility in Georgia for its mid-size vehicle platform,” Bank of America analyst John Murphy wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. “We have assumed RIVN would need to raise more capital, and VW’s investments in RIVN will prove valuable in helping it achieve the scale necessary to get to positive free cash flow.”
Cash infusion: A Rivian R3 SUV is displayed during the Rivian Reveals All-Electric R2 Midsize SUV event at Rivian South Coast Theater in March. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Rivian) (Phillip Faraone via Getty Images)
Murphy also noted potential benefits from cost savings and operating efficiencies in the joint venture deal, which could ultimately lead to higher gross margins.
Separately, Scaringe told Reuters yesterday that Rivian was improving its cost structure and simplifying production at its Normal, Ill., plant via upgrades to its factory equipment, among other things.
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering the auto industry. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
New York (CNN) — For five decades, the southern United States has been an attractive location for foreign automakers to open plants thanks to generous tax breaks and cheaper, non-union labor.
Now, the United Auto Workers has dealt a serious blow to that model: winning a landslide union victory after decades of failing to unionize automakers in the South.
The UAW easily won a historic victory Friday at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with 73% of workers voting in favor of the union. It’s the UAW’s first win in trying to represent workers at a foreign car manufacturing plant in the South.
While a single win won’t alter the union landscape in the South overnight, labor experts say the Tennessee victory may be a turning point in the least unionized part of the United States. (South Carolina and North Carolina have the lowest union rates in the US; Louisiana is the sixth-lowest.)
For one, it may provide momentum for current union drives at foreign auto plants in the South and spill over into organizing efforts in other industries, said Stephen Silvia, a professor at American University and author of “The UAW’s Southern Gamble: Organizing Workers at Foreign-Owned Vehicle Plants.”
The UAW’s win at Volkswagen “itself will not realign the South. But it’s an important building block for southern realignment,” Silvia said, adding that the win “challenges the southern growth model.”
The UAW has announced an effort to organize workers at 13 carmakers, including foreign automakers such as Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota and Volvo. The union is also aiming to organize three American EV makers – Tesla, Rivian and Lucid. Of those three, however, only Tesla has a plant in the South, in Texas.
The first test of the UAW’s momentum comes next month, when a union vote at a Mercedes plant in Vance, Alabama, is set to be completed. The plant has about 6,000 hourly workers.
But the South’s history of difficult structural dynamics for unions is entrenched. And union wins in the auto industry are likely to generate significant political backlash.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said earlier this year he would “fight” unions “to the gates of hell,” and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said “the Alabama model for economic success is under attack” by unions.
“Unions are an existential threat to the political economy of the South,” said Erica Smiley, the executive director of progressive advocacy group Jobs with Justice. Union members are more active politically, studies show, and likelier to push for pro-worker policies. This poses a challenge to the anti-union political and business consensus of the region.
Auto industry moves to the non-union South
Detroit and other industrial cities in the North dominated the auto industry for much of the 20th century, but the US auto industry has increasingly shifted to the South in recent decades.
Nissan opened a plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, in 1983, followed by BMW opening in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1994. Mercedes-Benz came to Vance, Alabama, in 1997. Honda moved to Lincoln, Alabama, in 2001. And Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai and Kia built factories the South in the 2000s.
Since 1990, the South’s share of auto jobs has doubled from around 15% to 30% today, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Meanwhile, the Midwest’s share has declined from 60% to 45%.
The transition to electric vehicles is poised to speed up this trend. Mostly nonunion EV jobs and manufacturing investments are surging in Southern states led by Republicans. The region has picked up 66% of planned EV jobs, according to a report by the Environmental Defense Fund.
Part of the reason foreign automakers have moved to the South is to escape unions. Before Friday’s win, the highest profile union election held in the South in recent years was the attempt to organize Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama in 2022. The union lost two separate votes there, although there is a hearing set for later this week about objections to that election that could order a third vote or certify the union’s loss.
Every state in the South has a “right to work” law, which allows workers to opt out of paying fees to a union at their workplace, even if they benefit from union bargaining agreements, undercutting a union’s financial resources to strategize and collectively bargain.
Southern political leaders have also used tax breaks and other subsidies to draw auto investments to states. These incentives have been predicated on companies keeping out unions.
“In the South, you’ve had the political and economic establishment that have built an economic model based on low wages and little worker voice,” Silvia said. “When UAW has tried to organize, they’ve tried to fight against it.”
GOP leaders have stepped in to block unions and preserve this model.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee in 2019 visited Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga to encourage workers to reject the union, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in 2015 she was a “union buster” when recruiting automakers to the state.
Southern states such as Georgia have passed laws threatening to cut off subsidies to companies that voluntarily recognize unions.
Overcoming union opposition
A major deterrent to unionizing efforts in the South is the ties between unions and the Democratic party.
Rank-and-file workers who supported the UAW effort at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga told CNN that one problem they faced when trying to drum up union votes was their co-workers’ dislike of Biden — who supported the union in its auto strike last year and whom the union has endorsed.
But the Volkswagen win, said UAW President Shawn Fain to CNN, shows that politics are not an insurmountable obstacle when it comes to organizing in the South.
“Trump will win Tennessee by a pretty big margin, I would guess. You know what, we just won by 73% in Tennessee,” Fain said. “I’m not worried about the political aspect of this, because our campaign is about bringing justice to workers.”
In the wake of the UAW’s victory at Volkswagen, labor advocates expect to see other states pass measures to deter union efforts — but workers may be energized.
“I think we’re going to see a lot of efforts to revitalize labor in the South. The gains in Chattanooga won’t stay in Chattanooga,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor historian at the University of California, Berkeley.
Erica Smiley from Jobs with Justice said “unions must stop seeing the South as no man’s land” where they can’t win and invest in efforts to organize southern industries.
Volkswagen is recalling more than 261,000 vehicles in the U.S. over a fuel tank issue, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
It concerns a faulty suction jet pump seal, which will need to be replaced.
The part is supposed to remove fuel from the Evaporative Emissions (EVAP) system, but if the seal inside the suction jet pump fails, the gas could flow directly into the EVAP system, the recall notice shows. If that happens, the fuel could eventually leak into another section of the engine, potentially leading to a fire.
Here are the models that are part of the recall:
The front-wheel drive 2015-2020 Audi A3 Sedan
2019-2020 Volkswagen Jetta GLI
2015-2019 Golf Sportwagen vehicles
NHTSA estimates that 261,257 vehicles are affected, although no fires have been reported due to the defect, the documents said.
Dealers will replace the suction pump free of charge, NHTSA added.
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News Streaming to discuss her reporting.
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Pokémon’s profit margins probably don’t reflect it, but the franchise had a rough year in 2023. Without a new mainline role-playing game to dominate the series’ headlines, Pikachu and friends were, instead, shrouded in controversies throughout the past 12 months. Between Pokémon Go angering swaths of its community, scalpers making a public embarrassment of the franchise to people who don’t even pay attention to it, and Scarlet and Violet’s DLC underlining the problems ingrained within the Pokémon pipeline, the screws are coming loose on the hype train. And yet, it cannot be stopped as it barrels down the tracks. Pokémon’s 2023 had its moments, but overall, it was pretty grim for a series usually so full of hope.
Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Detective Pikachu Returns pulls off its story better than the movie
To start off with some good, Detective Pikachu Returnsfinally came to Switch and wrapped up the original 3DS game’s bewildering cliffhanger. Without a new RPG out this year, Detective Pikachu Returns was the only home console game Pokémon fans got in 2023. The adventure game is pretty simple, but maintains the original’s charm and compelling setting. The ending felt pretty definitive, but hopefully, it’s not the end of The Pokémon Company greenlighting adventure games in the Pokémon universe.
Image: The Pokémon Company
Pokémon Sleep finally wakes up
After years of teases, Pokémon Sleep, the sleeping app meant to encourage consistent sleeping habits, finally launched on mobile devices. In our review, I talked about how it feels geared toward kids who need a little motivation to get to sleep on time. Arceus knows it’s near impossible for an adult with sleep disorders and things to do in the morning to get their recommended eight hours of shuteye. But the app is the latest example of Pokémon getting into lifestyle and wellness, following Pokémon Go’s lead of gamifying daily activity while building people’s relationships with the Pokémon brand.
Photo: Kenneth Shepard
Pokémon remains a community hub
Whether you were one of the 194,000 trainers attending Pokémon Go Fest or were in attendance during the Pokémon World Championships in Yokohama this year, Pokémon remains a community-driven series that brings people together. I even attended my first Go Fest this year, and having felt walled off from that side of the community living in rural Georgia, it was an invigorating experience to be surrounded by so many people coming together for a common love.
Image: The Pokémon Company
The anime ushers in a new era
One of the biggest events of Pokémon history happened in 2023, with long-time protagonist Ash Ketchum walking into the sunset in a final episode. The episode itself didn’t end with a definitive story beat but essentially said he and his partner Pikachu would continue to go on adventures throughout the Pokémon world, but we wouldn’t get to follow them. Instead, Pokémon Horizons, which follows new heroes Liko and Roy, has usurped Ash and Pikachu’s adventures as the primary animated series. The series has been airing in Japan since April, and will finally come to English-speaking territories in February 2024. Though it remains to be seen if Liko and Roy will ascend to Ash’s status as a beloved, iconic hero in anime, Horizons has already garnered acclaim from fans for its lovingly crafted animation.
Image: The Pokémon Company / Netflix
Pokémon shows of all shapes and sizes
While Liko and Roy are headlining the anime, Pokémon has had two more TV projects in 2023 that expand beyond 2D animation. This includes PokéTsume, a live-action drama starring a young woman who sorts through her personal and professional drama by playing Pokémon (she’s just like me, FR), and Pokémon Concierge, a stop-motion animation series on Netflix that is available to stream today, December 28. The Pokémon machine primarily focuses on games, anime, and merchandise as its core pillars, so it’s been nice to see The Pokémon Company continue to expand its projects to tell new stories in this world that aren’t always tied to competitive sports.
Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Scarlet and Violet’s DLC highlights the best and worst of the base games
While there was no new RPG in 2023, Scarlet and Violet got a two-part expansion called The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. Between The Teal Maskand The Indigo Disk, fans got new maps to explore, Pokémon to catch, and tools to build competitive teams. While the new story beats didn’t capitalize enough on the base games’ incredible ending to my liking (with one major exception), I was still happy to run around new places with my friends in co-op and learn more about this world. Sadly, in the year since Scarlet and Violet launched, Game Freak hasn’t managed to get the games into a fully functional state, and The Teal Mask and Indigo Disk’s new open-world maps are just as (if not more) buggy and ugly than Paldea was in 2022.
Welcome to Exp. Share, Kotaku’s Pokémon column in which we dive deep to explore notable characters, urban legends, communities, and just plain weird quirks from throughout the Pokémon franchise.
Image: The Pokémon Company / Vincent Van Gogh
The Van Gogh Museum fiasco underlined deep-rooted issues in the community
Pokémon and the Van Gogh Museum had a collaboration this year that included Pokémon-themed recreations of legendary Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh’s works, as well as merchandise tied to the event and a rare Pikachu card available with purchase alongside these limited edition items. As anyone who has paid attention to Pokémon in the past seven years can tell you, scalpers have become an entrenched part of this community, as it’s nearly impossible attempting to buy any limited edition item without someone’s bot swooping in and buying it to resell it on sites like eBay. While Pokémon fans know to expect that, it’s not often that this issue becomes a public spectacle. The Van Gogh Museum’s new exhibit, however, was overrun by so many people that it looked like something out of a Black Friday sale, and rather than just being fans hoping to acquire some special merch for themselves, many of these were scalpers, looking to hoard the items and jack up the prices.
It’s not unusual for people to attempt to steal and sell Pokémon merchandise, especially cards, andt more often than not, these are just petty crimes. The Van Gogh Museum fiasco, however, was a public embarrassment for The Pokémon Company, and the museum had to cease its card distribution for the safety of its patrons and employees. But even if the card is no longer being given out at the museum, the lingering aftermath of scalpers can still be seen on overpriced eBay listings for it, as well as associated merchandise from the collaboration. The Pokémon Company issued an apology and has since offered the card through the Pokémon Center store, but has neglected to manufacture more of the merchandise.
Image: The Pokémon Company
Pokémon Go’s Remote Raid changes undermine the community it nurtured
At the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, Pokémon Go developer Niantic made it easier for players to take part in raids with Remote Raid Passes that let you play the game from anywhere. It was a huge move for the game, as it was now possible to take part in these events regardless of where you and your friends were. This was especially helpful for people who lived in rural areas where Pokémon Go was typically not well-supported, as well as disabled players who typically had trouble playing Pokémon Go due to its focus on walking to reach objectives.
In March, Niantic made Remote Raid Passes more expensive and limited how many you can use in a day, which fundamentally undermined the ways several subsets of the Pokémon Go community had been playing the game for three years. The subsequent backlash spawned a fan campaign using the hashtag #HearUsNiantic, in which players expressed how these changes affected their enjoyment of the game, with some going as far as to say the increase in price for Remote Raid Passes felt like a tax on the disabled community. Despite protests and boycotts, these restrictions remain in the game to this day.
Image: Niantic
Niantic’s struggles go beyond Pokémon Go
If the public controversy around its flagship game weren’t enough, Niantic has been the subject of a lot of bad news in 2023. In June, Kotaku reported that Niantic was shutting down its Los Angeles studio, laying off over 200 employees in the process. The company made the decision to move away from in-house development, shuttering its basketball game NBA All-World and canceling its planned Marvel game.
Two weeks later, Niantic was the subject of a lawsuit accusing it of “systemic sexual bias” against its female employees and creating a “boys club” work environment. In November, a California judge approved the lawsuit to proceed.
Image: The Pokémon Company
The death of the 3DS eShop shakes Pokémon trading
The 3DS and Wii U eShops were shut down in 2023. While this affects every game and service on those platforms, Pokémon is in a precarious position because the loss of the 3DS eShop has created a gap between Pokémon generations. Trading old Pokémon to new games has been a long-held tradition within the series. It’s taken different forms between games, but the practice has become much more streamlined with the introduction of platform-agnostic services like Pokémon Home that host Pokémon from any game that can connect to the internet. However, the 3DS has been the bridge between older generations and Home through an app called Pokémon Bank. This 3DS app is used to transfer Pokémon from 3DS games to Home, thus to Switch games like Scarlet and Violet.
Pokémon Home is still probably the best solution The Pokémon Company has launched for this problem, as it doesn’t have to rely on specific hardware to store and trade different monsters. But without Bank, some Pokémon have become difficult or even impossible to obtain and trade over to modern games. As of this writing, Bank still works for those who had it purchased and installed on their 3DS before the eShop shutdown, but the tool is no longer readily available for new players.
Image: The Pokémon Company
Competitive Pokémon has a big hacking controversy
While not every Pokémon player is embedded in the competitive scene, ranked Pokémon play is still a pillar of the RPGs millions of people play every year. However, at this year’s Pokémon World Championship tournament in Yokohama, several players were banned from competing after it was discovered they were using hacked teams that weren’t approved for competitive use at an official tournament. However, some competitors told Kotaku The Pokémon Company’s rulings on this matter have been inconsistent, which made their bans at the headlining event of the year all the more devastating. In the fallout, new data seems to reveal this kind of homebrewing of competitively viable teams is rampant within the community.
The debate about using tools like PKHeX, which allows you to create teams without finding, catching, and training the Pokémon in a game, is a complicated one. Going this route doesn’t necessarily give you a competitive edge but can be viewed as not within the spirit of the franchise. Competitive players argue that using a tool like this is just a matter of saving time, allowing users to craft a team without having to do so within the boundaries of games like Scarlet and Violet. Training Pokémon to their most powerful potential isn’t an easy feat and can take large swaths of your time, even if you have endgame resources. But the argument that you should have to train like a real Pokémon trainer to “earn” your spot in the competitive space harkens to arguments made in the games and anime themselves.
Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
The machine must be stopped. Or at least made better
We at Kotaku launched Exp. Share, our Pokémon column, in 2023 to talk about all the wild, wonderful, weird, and woeful parts of this franchise. One of the most telling things I’ve learned in my years of covering Pokémon, especially for this column, has been that even as the series frustrates and confounds its legions of fans, those people will still show up to throw their money at it, despite their annoyance.
Issues like the supply problems that let scalpers run rampant, Pokémon Go pushing out the same community that kept it afloat, and Scarlet and Violet selling 23 million copies despite being an absolute trainwreck on a technical level only happen when The Pokémon Company is given little incentive to fix these problems. When I interviewed collectors for the Van Gogh reseller story, Grace Klich, who owns one of the Pikachu-inspired Volkswagen Beetles known as Pikabugs, pointed out that The Pokémon Company has watched systemic issues sprout up in its community over the years, but hasn’t done much to address them. Sure, the company apologized this time, but it’s not making more of what people are asking for. They made their projected profits; what does it matter if people are upset by the same supply problems they’ve always been?
This extends to pretty much every pillar of Pokémon’s business. The merch can sell out before fans can buy it because a scalper’s money clears just as easily for The Pokémon Company as that of a dedicated fan who wanted a Pikachu plush for their shelf. Pokémon COO Takato Utsunomiya said this year that the company’s annual releases may not be sustainable, as it’s affecting the quality of games like Scarlet and Violet, which are largely defined by big ideas and squandered potential. But if they sell 23 million copies despite being raked through the coals for their poor technical performance, is anything actually going to change? If The Pokémon Company knows it can count on people to show up, no matter how poor or frustrating its offerings are, can the machine ever be stopped?
Last year, Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Scarlet and Violet showed that Pokémon is growing beyond simply banking on nostalgia. But 2023 showed that all of that growth can be squandered as it inevitably gets funneled back into the bottom line. The machine is pumping out Pokémon games, cards, merchandise, and collaborations at a rate only rivaled by the late ‘90s Pokémania era. And yet, with every botched launch and misguided decision, with the ongoing lack of real change, the facade of this most hopeful franchise gets increasingly exposed for the money-making machine it is underneath.
Volkswagen’s software unit Cariad will delay the launch of its new software architecture yet again as it deals with a large round of layoffs.
Just three years after VW created Cariad, and only six months after an executive shakeup, the unit has planned to cut 2,000 jobs, German publication Manager Magazin reported over the weekend. The layoffs will further delay the launch of VW’s software architecture 1.2 by 16 to 18 months.
The software 1.2. platform, which is being developed for the Porsche Macan EV and the Audi Q6 E-Tron, was originally scheduled for completion in 2022. Cariad pushed the release date to the end of 2023 to be ready for 2024 VW models when Peter Bosch took over in May. Now, it looks like the software 1.2 platform won’t be in cars until at least 2025.
VW’s vehicles today already have the software 1.1 version installed. Cariad is also working on a 2.0 version, an operating system designed for all VW Group brands. The 2.0 architecture was initially slated for a 2025 launch, but given the recent layoffs, Cariad will now redevelop the software from scratch.
VW didn’t say whether these layoffs would push out the release date for the Macan EV itself, which is slated for early 2024. Volkswagen did not respond in time to clarify.
The Manager Magazin report said the restructure will also impact the next-gen Scalable Systems Platform, an architecture that VW hopes to use for EVs across its lineup, from VW hatchbacks to sporty Porsches.
VW has long struggled to launch software in its vehicles, which puts it on the back foot when competing with the software-defined vehicles popularized by Tesla and embraced by Ford and General Motors. In addition to creating smarter cars, software-defined vehicles offer automakers an opportunity to add revenue streams via in-car entertainment and services. In 2021, VW Group said Cariad could generate as much as €1.2 trillion ($1.4 trillion) in revenue by 2030, via subscriptions and other sales.
A series missteps and delays have caused various shakeups at Cariad. Most recently in May Cariad’s board replaced its CEO Dirk Hilgenberg with Bosch, who was previously responsible for manufacturing at VW’s Bentley brand. Bosch oversaw the slashing of 2,000 staff members as part of a broader restructuring plan, Reuters reported.
According to reports, VW Group’s board of directors has approved the downsizing, which will occur between 2024 and the end of 2025. The plan still requires approval from VW’s works council, which has guaranteed jobs for workers until mid-2025.
Volkswagen’s iconic microbus is coming back to North America as an all-electric vehicle, with sales for the van, dubbed the ID.Buzz, starting next year.
The ID. Buzz has the same boxy shape that Volkswagen purists remember, with a large VW logo on the front hood, and also boasts a 91-kilowatt battery and a 282-horsepower motor mounted in the rear of the vehicle. The interior has a sunroof, leather seats and a touch-screen infotainment system, among other features.
“It is practical, sustainable, and packaged in an unmistakably fun way that is classic Volkswagen,” Pablo Di Si, CEO of Volkswagen of America, said in a statement Friday at a launch event.
The ID. Buzz has a light brown interior with a sunroof and leather seats.
James Lipman of Volkswagen of America
EVs are drawing more attention within the automotive industry, as shoppers grow curious about their capabilities and automakers race to assert dominance in the market. A survey released earlier this year from Deloitte found that price is the top concern among potential EV buyers, with half of car shoppers citing “lack of affordability” as the barrier to buying an EV.
VW didn’t release a price or an exact date for new sales, but the ID. Buzz joins a list of other automakers that recently launched electric versions of their most recognizable vehicles. Ford is producing an electric F-150 pickup truck and Mustang. Meanwhile, Stellantis’ Dodge brand is making a battery-powered Charger.
The original microbus is Volkswagen’s second-oldest vehicle behind the Beetle. The microbus first went on sale in 1950, and Volkswagen built 9,500 microbuses — which were officially known as the Type 2 — in the first year of production, the company said.
The ID. Buzz draws inspiration from VW’s iconic Microbus.
James Lipman for Volkswagen of America
A decade later, VW’s microbus became the physical embodiment of the 1960s counterculture — the place hippies hung out to debate merits of the Vietnam War while smoking marijuana. The microbus is also a staple in Hollywood films, having appeared in films including Back to the Future (1985), Field of Dreams (1989) and Little Miss Sunshine (2006).
VW kept making a version of the microbus for the global market long after the original model left the U.S. in the 1970s, with production finally ending in 2014.
End to end, the ID. Buzz is two feet longer than the microbus and has wheels that, at 20 inches, are four inches bigger. The motor inside the ID. Buzz enables it to pull up to 406 pounds and a top speed of 99 miles per hour.
Volkswagen released an ID. Buzz version in the European market last year that featured two rows of seats; the North American edition has three rows, the company said.
Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.
One person was killed and two people were injured in a road incident at the Volkswagen Chattanooga plant in Tennessee on Saturday, spokesperson Amanda Plecas confirmed to CBS News in an email.
All three people were Volkswagen employees, the spokesperson said.
The driver in the collision swerved off a roadway “for unknown reasons” near the Volkswagen plant, striking the three pedestrians, the Chattanooga Police Department told CBS News in a statement. One employee, identified by the department as Amber Reed, died at the scene. A second victim remained hospitalized with life-threatening injuries as of Sunday night while the third had been treated and released.
Chattanooga police identified the driver as Jason Thornton. He was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide by recklessness, failure to operate with due care, reckless driving, felony reckless endangerment, and speeding.
The company halted production at the plant for the day, the Volkswagen spokesperson said, as the company, “continues to work closely with local law enforcement as they investigate the incident.”
Volkswagen recently announced plans to invest $193 billion to make every fifth vehicle it sells electric by 2025. More than two-thirds of the money will go toward software, battery factories, and other investments.
At a Tuesday media event, the New York Timesreports that Arno Antlitz, CFO of the Volkswagen Group, said the company must transform “into a technology and mobility services group.”
“We need to focus on our platforms,” Antlitz said, “such as our hardware for battery-powered electric vehicles, a unified software stack, batteries, mobility, autonomous driving.” He also said that his company’s strong financials would help it to “continue investing in electrification and digitalization” despite the current “challenging economic environment.”
CNBC reported a 68% spike in China propelled Volkswagen’s move toward EV expansion, aided by the company’s completion of a landmark plant in Tennessee.
Delivery numbers for Volkswagen did decline overall by 7% in 2022, then current CEO Oliver Blume took over from Herbert Diess—who aggressively pushed the company to embrace electric cars—in September last year. Blume said at the Tuesday presser that 2023 would be a decisive year for Volkswagen.
Thanks to a rise in energy prices and COVID-19-disrupted supply chains beginning to self-correct, Volkswagen did report a net profit of $16.7 billion in 2022—a 2.6 percent increase from the previous year.
Volkswagen indicated Tuesday that it will continue investing in China, forging partnerships with local companies there. In addition, the automaker plans to become a more significant North American player. Such moves could help it catch up to leading US automakers like General Motors, Ford, Toyota, and Hyundai.
