VW accidentally discloses a new name for its US operations: Voltswagen

Volkswagen accidentally posted a press release on its website a month earlier on Monday announcing a new name for its U.S. operations, Voltswagen of America, highlighting the German automaker’s efforts on electric vehicles.

A company spokesperson declined to comment on the statement, which was dated April 29 and has since been withdrawn.

A person familiar with the company’s plans has confirmed the post’s authenticity to CNBC. They asked to remain anonymous as the plans were not yet meant to be public.

The statement called the change a “public statement of the company’s future investments in electric mobility.” He said the Voltswagen would be placed as an exterior badge on all EV models with gasoline vehicles bearing only the iconic VW company emblem.

To “preserve elements of Volkswagen’s heritage”, the company planned to keep the dark blue color of the VW logo for gasoline vehicles and use light blue to differentiate “the new brand focused on electric vehicles.”

The statement said Voltswagen of America would remain an operating unit of Volkswagen Group of America and a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.

Volts are the units derived from the electrical potential, also known as the electromotive force, between two points. General Motors previously used Volt for a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle between 2010 and 2019.

VW’s press release was incomplete, citing the need for an additional quote and a photograph of the automaker’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

A name change would be the latest EV news from Volkswagen, which earlier this month hosted a “Power Day” to discuss its EV technologies. He also announced targets for significantly increasing sales of electric vehicles until the end of the decade. He expects more than 70% of European sales of his Volkswagen brand to be electric vehicles by 2030, up from a previous target of 35%. In the United States and China, it expects half of its sales to be electric vehicles by then.

Earlier this year, GM didn’t go so far as to change its name, but announced a new logo and a new advertising campaign focused on electric vehicles. The Detroit automaker’s new logo features its initials gm in lowercase letters with the “m” underlined as a nod to its Ultium battery cell platform that will underpin its new electric vehicles. It replaced a white GM underlined in a darker blue block.