Volkswagen confirms its name change to 'Voltswagen' was a bad April Fools' joke

What's in a name? Volkswagen, if the infamous car company is to be believed, is hoping to find out.

The maker of the new ID.4 EV let slip, apparently by mistake, Monday that it intended to rebrand its U.S. operations as "Voltswagen of America" in a nod to its goal of producing 1.5 million electric vehicles a year by 2025.

Despite the proximity to April Fools' Day and plenty of skepticism online, the car company claimed the change is real in a Tuesday press release.

"We might be changing out our K for a T, but what we aren't changing is this brand's commitment to making best-in-class vehicles for drivers and people everywhere," said Scott Keogh, president and CEO of Voltswagen of America.

Even with the press release, many see the entire thing as just too... dumb to be real.

"The announcement is combo of April Fools joke and the launch of a new marketing campaign," read one of the many such skeptical responses.

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We reached out to Volkswagen directly via email to determine its reaction to people blowing this rebrand off as an early April Fools' joke. We also tried to get the company to confirm, to us directly, that this is real.

We received no immediate response.

There was an immediate response, however, to the company's official announcement on Twitter.

"Here for the inevitable ratio," read one reply. "This is a garbage idea."

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"I think we're looking at an IHOB situation here..." read another, referring to the great IHOb debacle — wherein IHOP briefly changed its name to IHOb in a branding stunt — of 2018.

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Whether this turns out to be an early April Fools' joke or a genuine rebranding effort to demonstrate Volkswagen's commitment to electric cars, it will certainly fail to drown out the association many customers have of the company — one that involves lying about emissions and poisoning the world in the process.

UPDATE: March 30, 2021, 12:09 p.m. PST: According to the Wall Street Journal, this entire thing (as many already suspected) is indeed an early April Fools' Day joke.

"It's a premature April Fool's joke," a company official based in Germany told the paper. "It's part of a marketing campaign for the ID.4."

UPDATE: March 31, 2021, 8:28 a.m. PST: A Volkswagen spokesperson confirmed the Wall Street Journal's reporting via email, writing that this entire thing was meant to be playful and fun.

"Volkswagen of America will not be changing its name to Voltswagen," wrote the spokesperson. "The renaming was designed to be an announcement in the spirit of April Fool's Day, highlighting the launch of the all-electric ID.4 SUV and signaling our commitment to bringing electric mobility to all."

The company did not directly respond to our question as to whether or not it views green energy as a joke.