Volkswagen's Apology Comes in the Form of an Electric Phaeton

After Volkswagen AG was awash all over the media earlier this month, and not in a good way, they have come to terms with clearing their reputation (and one could hope their conscience as well) with announcing plans to create a pure electric vehicle in a new edition of the Phaeton.

In case you were living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, Volkswagen AG, along with a slew of other major car manufacturers (including BMW), came under fire for tampering on their emissions testing on over 10 million diesel cars. Ongoing investigations have found that more than 30 Volkswagen management staff were involved in this cover up, who are all likely to be suspended from their posts.

Cleverly, Volkswagen's next step to move on from this scandal was to announce plans that the Phaeton sedan, the company’s flagship vehicle, is to become a pure electric battery powered vehicle. This announcement was made early yesterday, by the new Volkswagen Brand Board of Management as part of a wider strategy meeting.

While no specific details of the car have been provided at the moment, the company’s press release advised features to  include "a pure electric drive with long-distance capability, connectivity, and next-generation assistance systems as well as an emotional design."

The Phaeton, first unveiled in 1999 as a concept car, was to be the company’s car of the new millennium. Its first model arrived on the road in 2003 and possessed many top technological features at that time with over 100 patents taken out. As the company’s flagship car, it is the model which launches the latest technology, and in all probability the reason why it was chosen for this latest project.