Volkswagen announced Project Trinity, the plan to build an electric sedan with a 2026 launch, at an event outlining aggressive future plans for electrification.

• At an event detailing goals for electrification and future technologies, VW revealed that it has a new electric sedan in the works that it plans to launch for 2026.
• The sedan, known as Trinity, will set “set new standards” for charging times, battery range, and other technology, VW said.
• At the event, the automaker also unveiled its Accelerate plan, whereby it plans to have 50 percent of its sales in the U.S. be electric by 2030.

Volkswagen is going all in on electric vehicles, and at an event detailing its even more aggressive future plans, the German automaker said that it has an electric sedan planned with a 2026 launch, dubbed Project Trinity. VW says that the Trinity sedan will set “new standards” with its charging speed, battery range, and in other technology.MORE ON VW’S ELECTRIFICATIONVolkswagen Wants to Sell Three Million EVs a YearVW ID.Buzz Microbus U.S. Launch Delayed to 2023 Tested: 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 Normalizes the EV

VW released a sketch of the Trinity, showing a sweeping roofline that resembles that of the Audi A7. Nonetheless, VW didn’t go so far as to release any specifics on the forthcoming sedan beyond that it will have a “Level 2+” autonomous system and “be technically ready for Level 4.” There is no formal definition of Level 2+, but if the sedan is equipped with the right hardware, upgrading it to a Level 4 system could be done with over-the-air updates.

The production process for the Trinity will also be different from the practice for current vehicles. Among the differences are that it will have fewer variants and the hardware will be standardized, the automaker said. In January, German newspaper Welt reported that the new sedan will have a starting price of around $42,000, which would make it slightly more expensive than the Tesla Model 3.

At the event, VW also outlined its Accelerate plan, a strategy whereby the automaker will streamline its electric business model to make it more profitable and efficient. Part of the plan is the goal of having 70 percent of sales in Europe, and 50 percent of sales in the U.S. and China, be of fully electric vehicles by 2030. VW said that to reach this goal, it will release at least one new electric vehicle each year. ELECTRIFICATION PLANSTimeline of EV Plans Automakers Have Announced

VW said that it plans to reduce the number of variations in each of its vehicles, and in turn, personalization of a vehicle won’t happen through changes in the hardware, but rather through the software on every vehicle. Customers will be able to add functions to their vehicles at any point during ownership. VW also said it plans to make “autonomous driving widely available” by the end of the decade. 

In total, Volkswagen is investing $19 billion into electrification and other advanced technologies through 2025. That investment isn’t quite what other automakers such as GM ($27 billion) and Ford ($29 billion) have earmarked toward those technologies.

Source : Car and Driver