Words About Things

The Fleet Van Awards 2010 have been decided and the top award of Fleet Van Manufacturer of the Year has been given to Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. VW’s fleet, which includes the Caddy and Crafter vans was judged to offer the “best brand value for UK fleets”. This is further good news for the brand who saw an 8% rise in global sales last month.

The Fleet Award judges explained why they had chosen Volkswagen from the shortlist of commercial vehicle manufacturers:

“Quality, quality, quality; Volkswagen has products across the range that are among the market leaders in each category.  It offers the best brand value for UK fleets with excellent back up from the manufacturer. Engineering, image, residual values, competitive running costs, new, more economical engines and a brand revitalised under MD Simon Elliott – it’s all translated into significant sales growth this year.”

Volkswagen also picked up the Medium Panel Van of the Year award for their Transporter van. The Transporter is one of the most popular Volkswagen vans for sale and is aimed primarily at the commercial vehicles market. The Fleet Van Awards judges said “The Transporter has dominated the market on residual values this year.  It has been upgraded with more efficient engines and improved build quality.  Well made, competitive running costs and a big seller – a winning combination.”

The Director of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Simon Elliott said ‘This award is a great honour. I am really proud, and pleased that the Fleet Van judges have recognised the quality and cost effectiveness of our vans and the professional customer service provided through our fleet team and dedicated Van Centre network.”

The chances are you saw one of the videos created in support of Volkswagen’s The Fun Theory campaign posted online last year. Between them the videos, which were created by DDB Stockholm, notched up over 20 million Youtube views, going properly viral unlike most ‘viral’ videos. The most popular video asked the question can we make more people take the stairs by making it fun to do so? The answer seems to be yes, if you turn the stairs into a giant piano!

The Fun Theory was all about generating interest in Volkswagen’s Blue Motion technologies that deliver the same great car performance with reduced environmental impact, and to do this, they found an insight around how “fun” could change human behavior for the better, and this formed The Fun Theory, a campaign that spawned over 700 user generated Fun Theory initiatives. – Digital Buzz Blog

The campaign was created to draw attention to Volkswagen’s Bluemotion energy saving technology, hence the eco friendly theme. Bluemotion is about saving energy through innovation, for example the recuperation of energy normally lost when braking and efficient start – stop technology. VW are developing these techniques in order to include them in upcoming models including their range of vans.

As mentioned above the campaign inspired over 700 user submitted Fun Theory ideas. The best idea was judged to be ‘The Speed Camera Lottery‘ by Kevin Richardson who won €2500. Kevin wasn’t the only winner, DDB Stockholm won the Cyber Grand Prix award for the best digitally led integrated campaign at The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Like most automotive companies Volkswagen are looking to the future and designing electric vehicles. Unlike most Volkswagen already have a design classic under their belts in the form of the iconic Beetle. The Volkswagen eUp! (complete with unessential punctuation) owes a debt to the Beetle in terms of style and ambition.

The eUp! aims to have widespread appeal in order to become “the Beetle of the 21st century”. This should come as a surprise from a company whose name translates as ‘the people’s car’.  By the time the eUp! comes out in 2013 there should be quite a lot of competition in the electric car market although it may have the stats to make it stand out:

The range is expected to be up to 130 kilometers (80 miles) on an overnight 230-volt charge for the five hours when electricity is cheapest while you’re asleep. Charged in this way, the E-Up! could be driven 100 kilometres for just two Euros in electricity costs (about 14 Euro cents per kWh). This would be the equivalent of driving 62 miles on $2.97 worth of electricity at $0.20 cents a kwh (McMansion Californian electric rates), or about like buying gas for $1.50 in a 31 mpg car.    – gas2.org

The eUp! is the smallest VW to date at only 3.19 meters long and 1.64 meters wide. Hopefully this vehicle will lead to Volkswagen creating other, larger electric vehicles across their range. With van emissions being clamped down upon we need more electronic vans for sale.