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VW boss confirms Subaru-aping Golf Alltrack for US

Subaru needs to watch out, because the Japanese brand with a utilitarian image has a big bull's eye on its back. Not only is Acura considering going 100-percent all-wheel drive in a bid to mimic the successful automaker, Volkswagen has just confirmed that the Golf Alltrack is coming to the US as another competitor for Subaru's popular Outback crossover. Volkswagen Group of America CEO Michael Horn has confirmed the addition of the higher-riding, all-wheel drive version of the Golf SportWagen to Automotive News, indicating that the model will arrive in the US in 2016. "That's what our dealers, our customers, are asking us for," he said to the industry publication. The Golf Alltrack, which debuted at the Paris Motor Show in early October, has an extra 0.75 inches of ride height and protective black cladding all the way around. Its biggest mechanical differentiator from other Golfs is its Haldex all-wheel drive system, a setup that can completely unhook from the rear axle when not needed to save fuel. In Europe, the Alltrack is available with a turbocharged 1.8-liter with 178 horsepower and two diesels offering between 109hp and 182 hp. However, Horn made no mention of likely powertrains for the US. Horn tells Automotive News that all-wheel drive tooling is currently being installed at the Puebla, Mexico, factory where the standard Golf Sportwagen is built. VW might have tipped its hand about this possibility several months ago when press shots of the wagon were released for the US with TDI and 4Motion badges. Horn says he expects even the front-wheel drive version to be a sales hit here, suggesting it may eventually account for 50 percent of the Golf range's volume.

Volkswagen names Piech's nieces to supervisory board

Volkswagen was left with two vacancies on its supervisory board after Ferdinand Piech and his wife Ursula were forced out a few days ago, and now it's filled them. Intriguingly, however, both of the new directors are Piech's nieces. The most obvious connection is Julia Kuhn-Piech, a real-estate professional who has sat on the board of VW's Man truck subsidiary since last year. Kuhn-Piech, 34, is the daughter of Ferdinand's younger brother Hans-Michel Piech (and by extension, niece of the ousted chairman). The other seat is being filled by Dr. Louise Kiesling, 57, a designer and daughter of Ferdinand's late older sister Louise Daxer-Piech. Keeping track of the lineage of the Porsche-Piech clan can be confusing, particularly with so many Ferdinands and Louises, but it breaks down essentially as follows: All are descended from Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the eponymous automaker and credited as the designer of the original Volkswagen Beetle. Porsche had a son and a daughter, the latter being Louise Porsche, who married Anton Piech and had four children: Ernst, Louise (mother of incoming board member Louise Kiesling), Ferdinand (the ousted chairman) and Hans Michel, father of the other incoming board member Julia Kuhn-Piech and a board member of both the Volkswagen Group and Porsche SE as well. The Piech and Porsche families control Porsche SE, which holds 50.7 percent of shares in the Volkswagen Group, which in turn owns Porsche the automaker. With all that in mind, appointing other members of the Piech-Porsche clan to the board follows logically enough - particularly since other members of the family helped oust Ferdinand from the chairmanship in the first place. The nominations, incidentally, also help VW increase its proportion of female board members. The two incoming Piechs will join Annika Falkengren of Swedish bank SEB and Babette Frohlich of the same IG Metall union as the board's interim chairman Berthold Huber. Wolfsburg, 30 April 2015 Dr. Louise Kiesling and Ms. Julia Kuhn-Piech appointed new members of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG Upon application by the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, Dr. Louise Kiesling and Ms. Julia Kuhn-Piech were today appointed members of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG by Braunschweig Local Court with immediate effect. The appointments were made pursuant to Section 104 of the Aktiengesetz (German Stock Corporation Act) and were occasioned by the recent resignations of Prof. Ferdinand K.

Watch Chris Harris in the electric VW ID.R waste a McLaren 720S

The Volkswagen ID.R doesn't have much in common with a McLaren 720S, other than the fact that they are both performance-crazed cars. One gets its power from batteries, the other from gas. One uses electric motors, the other a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8. One is a halo prototype vehicle, the other is a road-legal supercar available for purchase. So when Chris Harris and "Top Gear" decided to "race" the two against each other, it was more of a demonstration of the VW's unreal capabilities than any sort of real competitive faceoff. In episode five of Top Gear's 28th season, which just aired February 23, the trio of Harris, Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness welcomed Youtuber KSI on the show and ventured out on a luxury sports car road trip with an Aston Martin, Porsche, and Ferrari. Separately, Harris took to the track to test out Volkswagen's golden egg of the moment, the ID.R. As VW fully launches into its electric-vehicle push, the ID.R is meant to exhibit what battery-electric technology is capable of. With two electric motors, one on the front axle and one on the rear axle, the 2,425-pound ID.R has four-wheel drive and makes a claimed 670 horsepower. As Harris notes in the video, the ID.R. was not built for a specific regulation-bogged racing organization or competition, and thus, it's only held back by the rules of Mother Nature and Father Physics. Since the car's debut, it has been annihilating records around the world, including at Pike's Peak, Goodwood, the Nurburgring, and Heaven's Gate. Chris Harris didn't set any records in the ID.R., but he certainly showed how outrageous this machine is. The 710-horsepower 720S can go from zero mph to 62 mph in less than three seconds, and the ID.R has a sizable lead within that same time. Again, this wasn't an instance of test-and-conclude, it was a show of perspective. The ID.R is a race car, so even though the 720S is one of the best supercars in the world, it never stood a chance. See for yourself above. Related Video: