2014 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen Tdi W/sunroof on 2040-cars

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Volkswagen Golf Wagon leaked ahead of official unveiling

Wagons ho! These three images of the upcoming Volkswagen Golf Wagon have leaked online ahead of the car's official debut, which may very well be at the Geneva Motor Show. Looking over the photos doesn't really bring any surprises - after all, this is a VW Golf with a wagon rear end grafted on, or basically what we expect next Jetta SportWagen will be.
We can only share these three images at this time, but fret not, folks. There's little doubt that all the details and images will be flowing from Volkswagen in short order. In the meantime, click on the images above to view them in high resolution.

Recharge Wrap-up: VW consumption down 24%, BAIC opens EV R&D in CA

The Biofuel Infrastructure Partnership will provide grant funding to 21 states to help improve consumers' access to renewable fuels. Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture announced the funding, which will help retailers purchase and install the equipment necessary to dispense fuels like E85 and other higher ethanol blends. Groups such as the American Coalition for Ethanol, Growth Energy, Prime the Pump, and the Renewable Fuels Association came forward to applaud the announcement. "This assistance in building out retail infrastructure is not only good for the American farmer but it is also great for the American motorist who will now have more opportunities to buy higher octane fuel at a lower cost," says Prime the Pump Chairman Ray Defenbaugh. Read more from Domestic Fuel. Volkswagen has reduced resource consumption of its vehicle production by 24.3 percent since 2011. As part of its "Think Blue. Factory." program, the automaker has implemented a series of environmental efforts (a number VW puts at 3,400 measures) at its factories worldwide. Examples include optimizing shut-down schedules, reducing solvent emissions, energy recovery programs, and recycling paper, plastic, and water. Read more at Green Car Congress. BAIC has opened an electric vehicle research and development center in California's Silicon Valley. The Chinese automaker's first overseas R&D facility, it opened under BAIC's subsidiary, Beijing Electric Vehicle Co. (BJEV), and is affiliated with the Beijing New Engineering Research Institute. The center will be responsible for the research and development of three to four new models per year, as BJEV intends to bring a complete lineup of EVs to market. BJEV also plans to open an R&D center in Europe. Read more at Green Car Congress or from BAIC. Co-CEO of Zap and CEO of Jonway Autos, Wang "Alex" Gang is providing $10 million in funding to the two companies in order to meet electric minivan orders. Zap/Jonway have taken down payments from Dongfeng to supply 11,000 of the EVs by the Chinese New Year (February 8) of 2016. The equity investment from Wang allows Zap/Jonway to ramp up production to meet this deadline, with a target of 1,000 EVs per month by year's end. Read more in the press release below. CEO Funds $10 million To Support ZAP and Jonway Auto in Delivering 11,000 EV minivan Orders SANTA ROSA, Calif., Sept.

VW invests in QuantumScape for potentially fireproof, long-range EV batteries

VW might be getting ready to push its plug-in technology in a big way thanks to an investment in the battery startup QuantumScape. Key point: the solid-state battery is said to be fireproof and will offer tremendous range advantages. Details are not abundant yet, but according to Bloomberg, VW of America bought a five-percent stake in QuantumScape (and has an option to raise its holding). The tech could "more than triple" the EV range of VW, Porsche and Audi plug-in vehicles as soon as the middle of 2015, according to unnamed sources that Bloomberg talked to. Former Stanford University researchers started QuantumScape in 2010. The bare-bones QuantumScape website (there's nothing there other than some contact information) doesn't offer many hints about what's happening at the company, but GigaOM's Katie Fehrenbacher notes that QuantumScape is licensing tech from the "All Electron Battery" project at Stanford a few years ago. It certainly sounds amazing: [It's] a completely new class of electrical energy storage devices for electric vehicles that has the potential to provide ultra-high energy and power densities, while enabling extremely high cycle life. The All-Electron Battery stores energy by moving electrons, rather than ions, and uses electron/hole redox instead of capacitive polarization of a double-layer. ... If successful, this project will develop a completely new paradigm in energy storage for electrified vehicles that could revolutionize the electric vehicle industry. If that's what's coming in a future e-Golf or E-Tron, sign us up.