[Updated] VW stole my totally brilliant and not terrible idea to rename itself ‘Voltswagen’

It seems VW of America is a little jealous about Tesla’s S3XY CARS meme, and supposed sense of humor. So much so, it’s committed the greatest atrocity of them all, and coming up with lame dad jokes.

What’s worse though, is they STOLE it, from ME!

According to Car and Driver, VW of America posted a press release announcing that it’s changing its name to Voltswagen, to make itself appear more EV friendly.

The post has since been removed, and it looks nothing more than perhaps a premature April Fool’s day gaff. Even though it was allegedly confirmed to CNBC.

But the biggest atrocity is they stole the joke from me. I’m pretty sure of that.

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Nearly a year ago, after sharing the news that VW was focusing on EV production at its Zwickau plant in our company Slack, I suggested that it was high time that VW change its name to Voltswagen.

That was back in June 2020!

Ok, ok. Sure, I know. It’s kind of obvious. But still, I feel like I deserve some kind of royalty — even though I only said it in a private Slack channel that VW had no access to. I mean, c’mon.

Although, as it turns out, VW has used this wording before. Not in relation to a full rebrand and name change as I suggested, but in an advert for its e-up! electric hatch. Kudos to Sebastian Blanco for spotting this one.

I've posted this elsewhere, but just so we're all clear, the #Voltswagen name (which seems to be real, despite 4/1 fast approaching) is not exactly new. See this @VW ad from 2013 in Oslo, for example: pic.twitter.com/sT0PzDTY4P

— Sebastian Blanco (@SebastianBlanco) March 29, 2021

I’ve never seen this advert before, so I’m still claiming the intellectual creative rights to suggesting VW changes its name and rebrands to Voltswagen.

We shouldn’t pay any attention to VW’s car adverts anyway. It once called a car a Lemon. It clearly has no idea what it’s talking about.

Update, March 30, 23:35 CEST:  Ignore the update below because, as it turns out, Volkswagen was reportedly lying the entire time as part of an April Fool’s Day joke gone awry, as originally reported.

Update, March 30, 16:41 CEST:

Well, it seems the rumors were true. In a tweet published about a couple of hours ago, VW confirmed that it’s changing its name to Voltswagen.

We know, 66 is an unusual age to change your name, but we’ve always been young at heart. Introducing Voltswagen. Similar to Volkswagen, but with a renewed focus on electric driving. Starting with our all-new, all-electric SUV the ID.4 – available today. #Voltswagen #ID4 pic.twitter.com/pKQKlZDCQ7

— Voltswagen (@VW) March 30, 2021

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