Volkswagen announced Wednesday that it plans to help reduce carbon emissions by investing in various electric car projects.
The plans were revealed at an industry conference in Traverse City, Mich., where the German automaker said it is focusing on creating a "truly holistic approach to ultra-low-carbon mobility" for its new eGolf electric car, according to USA Today. The vehicle is a fully-electric version of Volkswagen's popular small car Golf, and will be available in select states this fall.
Audi, Volkswagen's luxury car group, said it will make its A3 Sportback e-tron vehicle available next year in order to tackle the carbon emission problem. The car is a plug-in hybrid, possessing a gas engine as well as batteries.
While electric cars are supposed to be environmentally friendly, they can still give off carbon emissions if they consume electric power produced from oil, gas, and other fossil fuels, Bidness Etc reported. To solve this problem, Volkswagen is starting projects in Texas and California with the goal of reducing carbon emission released in the initial 36,000 miles driven by cars, while Audi will attempt to cancel out emissions for the first 50,000 miles driven.
"Volkswagen feels it is important to look beyond the benefits of driving a vehicle without tailpipe emissions and to take a holistic approach to e-mobility," said Oliver Schmidt, general manager of environment and engineering for Volkswagen.
One of the projects will be developed in McKinney, Texas, and is aimed at collecting gases leaking from a shuttered landfill. Volkswagen is looking to use the project to reduce odors as well as improve water quality and lead to new ways for collecting gases that can be burnt off, USA Today reported.
The second project, called the Garcia River Forestry Project, is being developed in Mendocino, Calif., to help protect a 24,000-acre native redwood forest. The automaker is also focusing on to keeping trees in the county's Big River and Salmon Creek forests safe.
