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We just got a first look at what could be Volkswagen’s electric sports car
World Intellectual Property Organization; Business Insider/Yu Han
New renderings of a Volkswagen sports car are giving us a glimpse at what could be an addition to the automaker’s electric car line.
The design patent, found on the World Intellectual Property Organization website, was first posted on a Volkswagen forum called VWvortex. Autoblog was the first to report on the patent, stating that the two-door coupe is part of Volkswagen’s electric vehicle line.
We’re not finding anything in the design patent itself indicating that the car is electric. However, a separate minibus design in the patent resembles the electric microbus concept, dubbed the BUDD-E, that Volkswagen showed at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
World Intellectual Property Organization; Business Insider/Yu Han
That could mean the coupe is an addition to Volkswagen’s electric car line plans. The German automaker is planning to introduce 30 or more electrified vehicles by 2025 in response to the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
A Volkswagen spokesperson said “we don’t comment on media speculation,” when asked about the patent. It’s worth noting that patents do not necessarily indicate the car will be produced.
Scroll down for a closer look at the car.
The Volkswagen patent showcases a two-dour coupe with an aerodynamic design. We like to think the rear wing could be extendable because…
… the car’s rear design is actually somewhat similar to the Mercedes concept car, dubbed the Concept Intelligent Aerodynamic Automobile, that debuted at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show. The rear fin of that car can extend by up to 15 inches.
You can get a closer look at the Mercedes concept car here. As you can see, the Volkswagen car design comes with a fin that resembles what we saw in the Mercedes concept. Perhaps Volkswagen is interested in building an extendable rear fin into future models.
The car also appears to come with gull-wing doors since it doesn’t have traditional handle placement.
It’s got a smooth, continuous design…
… And it has a dorsal fin on the rear.
It may look like the car doesn’t have a windshield, but we would caution against reading too much into that choice. Volkswagen is most likely trying to showcase a clean, seamless design, rather than put forward a windshield-less car.
And if you look closely enough, you can see that there’s a clear deviation from the roof and windshield area.
Again, as a design patent, there’s only so much we can extrapolate from the image.
As mentioned earlier, Volkswagen has other car designs in the patent, like this microbus.
As Auto Car first pointed out, the microbus design is similar to the BUDD-E concept unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show with a range between 248 miles and 372 miles.
The BUDD-E is unlikely to go into production, but was meant to showcase Volkswagen’s Modular Electric Toolkit, or MEB, platform.
Volkswagen has claimed the MEB platform will give its electric cars mileage “on par with today’s gasoline-powered cars by the end of the decade.”
Volkswagen is planning to introduce 30 or more electrified vehicles by 2025.
Volkswagen recently unveiled its all-electric ID Concept at the Paris Motor Show, pictured above. The car, which can achieve a range between 248 miles and 372 miles on a single car, will come in 2020. But an autonomous version of the car is slated to arrive in 2025.
The post We just got a first look at what could be Volkswagen’s electric sports car appeared first on Business Insider.
