Volkswagen’s ‘Voltswagen’ rebranding is reportedly an April Fool’s stunt

This morning Volkswagen US tweeted out a new logo and issued a press release announcing plans to rebrand itself as Voltswagen, in line with a push for electric cars. That announcement came after CNBC spotted a leaked press release on its site the day before, and as skeptical as we were about the name, the company insisted it was real. 

While press contacts for Volkswagen US have not commented on the issue, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal both cite unnamed sources claiming that on Wednesday, Volkswagen will reveal the name change is not real. As the Wall Street Journal source said “It’s a premature April Fool’s joke. It’s part of a marketing campaign for the ID.4.”

As a marketing campaign, it seems odd that Volkswagen would choose to remind people that you can’t trust what this company says (dieselgate), instead of simply highlighting the ID.4, a compact crossover SUV that doesn’t need silly stunts to convince people it’s worth driving. Now we’ll just wait until March 31st to find out if this is really a joke, or just the worst rebranding effort ever.