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Auction for first US VW e-Golf raises $41,400 for Global Green charity

Would having Jay Leno on hand have changed the outcome? That's what executives at Volkswagen might be asking after the German automaker auctioned off the company's first electric car in the US for around $6,000 over MSRP. VW auctioned off the first Volkswagen e-Golf in the US to raise money for the environmental non-profit Global Green USA. Bruce Oberg, an EV enthusiast and previous VW owner, proudly cut a $41,400 check for the car, which has a 116 miles per gallon-equivalent rating and is said to be able to go about 80 miles on a single charge. At your local dealer (depending on where you live), the e-Golf starts at $35,445. Sales start later this month in 11 states: California, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Oregon, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Washington, DC. The $6,000 premium for first-dib rights for the e-Golf is nice, but it doesn't compare to what BMW worked out this summer. In August, the first i8 plug-in hybrid in the US was auctioned off at California's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance for $825,000 (to an unidentified buyer). That's about six times the car's sticker price, but this special edition came with Louis Vuitton luggage and was presented by noted car buff Leno. VW's press release below. VOLKSWAGEN E-GOLF RAISES MONEY TO BENEFIT GLOBAL GREEN USA AFTER A SUCCESSFUL CHARITY AUCTION Nov 4, 2014 Winning bidder claims first VW electric vehicle as the car begins to ship to select U.S. dealerships Herndon, VA (November 4, 2014) – Volkswagen of America, Inc. today announced that the auction of the first 2015 all-electric Volkswagen e-Golf has raised $41,400, with proceeds benefitting the national environmental non-profit Global Green USA and its efforts to advance smart solutions to climate change. The winner of the auction, which ran from October 8–29 on CharityBuzz.com, became the first U.S. driver to own Volkswagen's all-new, fully-electric vehicle. "Volkswagen's commitment to e-mobility and sustainability runs deep. We could not be more proud that the e-Golf has helped raise money to benefit the efforts of Global Green USA, an organization that shares in our dedication to the environment," said Michael Horn, president and CEO, Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.

Auto execs surveyed say VW, BMW most likely to grow

A new survey of top global automotive executives indicates both Volkswagen and BMW are the most likely to grow their market share over the next five years.
Tax advisory firm KPMG LLP has released its 14th annual Global Automotive Executive Survey, which includes responses from over 200 executives. A total of 81 percent of respondents said they expect to see Volkswagen make gains, compared to 70 percent last year. BMW, meanwhile, saw 70 percent of those surveyed say they believe the company will increase its market share. That's a jump of 7 percentage points over last year. This is the first time in the history of the survey that BMW has claimed the second-place spot.
Meanwhile, Hyundai has seen its perceived market share potential slacken for the third year in a row. Around 61 percent of those surveyed predicted gains for Hyundai, down from 63 in 2012. Toyota also has a surprising year, but for just the opposite reason. While the manufacturer had slipped in ranking since 2011, it enjoyed the largest increase of any company in the 2013 survey, jumping to 68 percent from 44 percent last year.

When Android Automotive goes in the dash, Google wins — and automakers lose data

You've gotta hand it to Google for the way the Silicon Valley tech giant has made indelible inroads into the car on multiple fronts. The most obvious is with its pioneering self-driving car technology that's caused car companies to get their act together on autonomous vehicles — and also collaborate with Google. Google has more directly extended its influence and data-mining capabilities into the car with its Android Auto smartphone-projection platform that most major automakers have adopted along with Apple's CarPlay. And now it's preparing to dig even deeper into dashboards by deploying its open-source operating system, Android Automotive, beginning with Audi and Volvo. Volvo recently announced that its next-generation Sensus infotainment system will run Android Automotive as an OS and include Google's Play Store for cloud-based content, Maps for navigation and Google Assistant for voice recognition, which can even command a car's climate control. By embedding Google in the dash, Volvo says owners will get an improved connected experience. "Bringing Google services into Volvo cars will accelerate innovation in connectivity and boost our development in applications and connected services," Volvo senior vice president of R&D Henrik Green said in a statement. "Soon, Volvo drivers will have direct access to thousands of in-car apps that make daily life easier and the connected in-car experience more enjoyable." Having Android Automotive onboard could benefit drivers — and provide a big win for Google, since it opens a deep and lucrative new data-mining vein for the company. But it's a wave of a white flag for car companies when it comes to delivering their own cloud-based content and services. It also represents a massive data giveaway and, for Audi, a reversal of earlier reservations about letting Google get too much access to car data. Not long after Android Auto and Apple CarPlay were introduced in 2014 and most automakers eagerly embraced the technologies, several German automakers second-guessed their decision when they realized what was at stake: data. At a conference in Berlin in 2015, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said car owners "want to be in control of their data, and not subject to monitoring." A few months earlier, Stadler stated that "the data that we collect is our data and not Google's.