Why is Volkswagen planning to take 1,000,000 cars off the road?
Volkswagen has announced that they are planning to take around 1,000,000 cars off the road with their new electric car ride-sharing service “Moia”.
VW Group has recently unveiled a 6 passenger electric vehicle primarily for the purpose of ridesharing, and an accompanying phone application that will help cut down the congestion in large cities by as much as up to 90%.
Not only would this cut down on congestion, but significantly cut down on pollution and improve air quality. Gasoline powered automobiles are some of the largest causes of pollution in large cities. Electric vehicles like the one Volkswagen proposes do not cause nearly this level of pollution as their gasoline-powered counterparts since there is no internal combustion engine involved.
Environmental impact and ease of congestion are not the only benefits, however. Electric vehicles are significantly cheaper to run on a daily basis. Since there is no gas engine aboard the concern of fuel economy is a thing of the past. The cost to charge an electric vehicle is much cheaper on a daily basis than the cost of filling up also.
There is another benefit to electric vehicles that most never talk about. Electric motors deliver “instant on” power as opposed to gasoline or diesel powered vehicles. In a fossil fuel powered vehicle, power is delivered by an increase in engine RPM. Generally, to a point, the faster and engine is spun, the more power is made.
In an electric vehicle, there is no delay. The company Tesla emphasizes this with their Model S P100D, an electric vehicle that delivers over 700 ft/lbs of torque. You can find videos online of these Teslas running down a drag strip faster than many sports and muscle cars.
Will VW be able to pull it off? They will sure they when they launch Moia in 2018.