There won't be any internal combustion race cars from VW anymore

MANILA: With most of the automobile manufacturers going all guns blazing towards the electrification of their existing and upcoming vehicles, Volkswagen is another firm that has taken a significant step in the same direction. The latest developments reveal that Volkswagen won't be developing and producing any ICE powered race cars from now on. With that said, all of the upcoming race cars by the German automaker are going to be powered by electric motors and batteries.

Volkswagen's recent propositions, concepts, and projects have also clearly portrayed the automaker's intentions of transiting into an electrified portfolio. Furthermore, the likes of the ID Buzz electric car, VW's electric race car that showed up at pikes peak, and the automaker's announcement of releasing around 30 new hybrid and electric models in the next 30 years also give us a glimpse of what the future for VW looks like.

"Electric mobility offers enormous development potential, and in this regard motorsport can be a trailblazer: on the one hand, it serves as a dynamic laboratory for the development of future production cars and, on the other, as a convincing marketing platform to inspire people even more towards electric mobility.

That is why we are going to focus more than ever on factory-backed electric drive commitments and continue to expand our activities with the development of the MEB. Innovative technology relevant to the car of the future is our focus", said Sven Smeets, Volkswagen Motorsport Director.

Not only Volkswagen will bring the development of the fresh Golf touring car to an end but also limit or even stop providing support to the teams which use a VW race car. While teams will still be able to drive their VW race cars, they won't get much support from VW following the development. Interestingly enough, Volkswagen will continue to produce the Polo R5 that serves the purpose of customer racing. Also, VW will continue to provide spares for the ICE powered race car.

Since ICE powered race cars won't be coming out from the VW's production facilities anymore, the racing opportunities for the automaker are bound to decrease. Especially because there aren't many EV races out there. Anyway, VW may head out to compete at the Formula E and some other events. Hopefully, there will soon come rally championships that will include EVs.

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