Voltswagen of America • Hacker News Board

Re: Voltswagen of America

#221

Post by certifiedloud » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:56 PM UTC

Aldipower wrote: post #87

sillyquiet wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans are pronouncing it perfectly correctly as most of us speak English and not German.

Ei sink ju wud bi surpreist if Ei wud tok to ju leik sis. (I think you would be surprised, if I would talk to you like this.) German pronounced English. :)

The text exaggerates your point a little bit.

"ju" would be pronounced the same as "you" when speaking. And "Ei" would be just the same as "I". "wud" = would "leik" = like "tok" = talk "bi" = be All of the above would sound exactly the same when spoken.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#222

Post by pySSK » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:57 PM UTC

dalbasal wrote: post #200

If this isn't a joke, it actually does make sense. Easier to pronounce in english. Means electric car... the growth category. Why not? "Volkswagen" is big enough that the name just means the company/product. But, it isn't really good brand name for an anglo market. You either can't pronounce it, or the literal connotation makes you a little uncomfortable.

I guess Tesla and Faraday were already taken. This is ridiculous. I hope this is a case of an April fools joke delivered according to German punctuality.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#223

Post by throwawayboise » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #210

oblio wrote: post #2

This is funny, yet ridiculous :-)) Their brand is so tainted in the US that they're renaming it. I imagine it's going to be the only place they'll do it.

Their brand is so tainted in the US that they're renaming it. I don't think most Americans know about or remember the emissions scandal. That said, there's plenty of precedent for a product being so tainted that it got renamed. Comcast becoming Xfinity comes to mind.

Very few Americans would even consider a diesel passenger car. They just are not popular here ouside of a tiny niche. That's the irony of the emissions scandal -- there aren't enough passenger diesel cars on the road in the USA that it made any real difference anyway.

Americans don't care about diesel cars, and they for the most part didn't care about the emissions scandal.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#224

Post by sorokod » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

sillyquiet wrote: post #72

minxomat wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they grew tired of Americans pronouncing it wrong (most V are still pronounced as F, Vettel, Volkswagen etc.) ;-) Edit: This German apologizes for an attempt at a humorous / sarcastic comment and will revert to work-machine state at once. Beep boop.

Americans are pronouncing it perfectly correctly as most of us speak English and not German.

English used to fragmented enough for v being pronounced as f as attested by the related "fox" and "vixen"

Re: Voltswagen of America

#225

Post by arbitrage » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

kbos87 wrote: post #179

I previously owned a VW, but swore on my life that I'd never buy another one after the emissions cheating scandal. There are plenty of reasons why a VW likely wont be my next choice, but I'm softening my stance a bit. What they did was absolutely reprehensible, but I later learned that the more accurate story is that they bore the brunt of media attention for something that nearly every auto manufacturer was later fo…

> they bore the brunt of media attention for something that nearly every auto manufacturer was later found to be doing

Maybe a better answer would be holding ALL of the automakers to task like we felt needed to be done with VW, instead of giving all of the parasitic capitalists a free pass to do it all over again.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#226

Post by natch » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

rmoriz wrote: post #16

E-Dub would have been better

Not bad! I mean yes it's bad, but in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way. I'd like to see this at least as a model name.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#227

Post by sequoia » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer"

And in case you're wondering, yes the company was founded by the Nazi party. I think it's good they changed the name.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#228

Post by crazygringo » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

cyral wrote: post #67

agrafix wrote: post #4

Hmm did they release their April 1 joke too early by mistake?

https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/30/22357166/volkswagen-name-... > The proximity of the name change to April Fool’s Day initially raised suspicions that it was just a joke. But VW insists that it’s a real thing, so here we are.

> "The company was apparently planning to make the announcement at the end of April but accidentally published a press release about the name change early Monday afternoon, which was first spotted by CNBC before it was taken down. The proximity of the name change to April Fool’s Day initially raised suspicions that it was just a joke. But VW insists that it’s a real thing, so here we are."

Sounds to me like a publicity stunt -- they "accidentally published" a press release a month early? Sorry, that doesn't happen.

Seems like trying to generate buzz on social media, then they'll quietly "decide" not to change the name after all, but people associating VW with electric cars more so -- mission accomplished.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#229

Post by Shivetya » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

kbos87 wrote: post #179

I previously owned a VW, but swore on my life that I'd never buy another one after the emissions cheating scandal. There are plenty of reasons why a VW likely wont be my next choice, but I'm softening my stance a bit. What they did was absolutely reprehensible, but I later learned that the more accurate story is that they bore the brunt of media attention for something that nearly every auto manufacturer was later fo…

my second favorite car was my TDI Beetle Convertible (2013) and I would be more than willing to line up to buy a BEV version of the same. The closest it appears I will get is an Audi TT which may be the first mass production convertible to be available; the Tesla Roadster of past doesn't count.

Their current BEV platform is a good first shot, I am disappointed in the lack of front trunk but I expect they will eventually go that way. The real issue this platform suffers from but should be a software fix is that they don't support auto negotiation with charging stations. Even Ford is able to do so with Electrify America yet VW who backed it cannot.

As for the name change, its fitting provided they quickly move to an all electric fleet. There are some nice variations of the ID.* platform coming and the .Buzz is the neatest of them all in my book. By quickly I mean get there five years before everyone else.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#230

Post by MauranKilom » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

ThePhysicist wrote: post #173

Reminds me of the "Siemens Healthineers" madness. German companies are really good ruining perfectly fine brands (look e.g. at the new BMW logo), so I wouldn't be suprised if this was real. If they really want to change the name why not just use "Volta", which at least is short.

Volta is already taken.