Volkswagen’s high-performance R-brand is about to get its own home at the huge ‘Autostadt’ complex in VW’s home town of Wolfsburg.
VE’s Motor City
The Autostadt—literally German for Motor City—is a combined museum, headquarters, and factory in the heart of VW’s home. It's a significant step for R to get its own specific space within Autostadt rather than just being part of the general VW brand areas. This is part of R’s journey towards becoming almost a sub-brand in itself. Think Mercedes-AMG, and you’re getting the idea.
Transition to electric power
The new, low-slung building will be “both a new meeting place for the premium performance brand’s growing fan base and an event location where Volkswagen R’s model diversity, the R allure and new technologies will be presented in the future” says Reinhold Ivenz, Head of Volkswagen R. “With our high-performance top models, we have established ourselves as an integral part of the Volkswagen model portfolio - both in the brand and in the Group. With our own pavilion in the Autostadt, we are now taking the next step to further increase the awareness of us as a performance brand. With our transition to an all-electric brand, we will also intensify the R customer experience through exclusive insights into concept cars and new technologies.” Don’t be worried by the potential switch to electric power either - let’s not forget that the mighty electric Volkswagen ID.R prototype holds the record on the Goodwood Hillclimb…
Flooded with light
The R Pavilion will feature a “light-flooded” area where its vehicles can be displayed, as well as a 100-square-metre lounge area. Visitors can also use driving simulators to pit their skills against VW R’s expert driver. The main display are will change throughout the year, taking in the themes of innovation, performance, and design as well as R-branded parts and accessories. Most interestingly, VW says that the space will feature ‘small series production vehicles’ which suggests we might be seeing more specialised R-badged products in the future.
Customer and community events
The Pavilion will also host press and media events, customer days, and community events for the rapidly growing Volkswagen R fan community, such as the ‘Friends of R’ group or the legendary ‘R & Coffee’ fan meet-up. Peter Jost, Head of Sales and Marketing at Volkswagen R, says: “The new Volkswagen R pavilion in the Autostadt does not just offer us a new venue where we can showcase ourselves even better as a premium performance brand within the Volkswagen brand world. With this pavilion, we are also creating a meeting point for the Volkswagen R community and are thus becoming even more accessible and authentic as a brand. We will quickly fill this promise to the R Community with life.”