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Not sure you're reading what's up there.... 6 peeps in Dec of '17 seems very feasible.... 2706 throughout the year....

How much of that was related/due to dieselgate?

 

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Dieselgate wasn't a thing with Golf R from what I know... so "zero".

I guess for that specific example of the R, but I recall back then the VW dealerships here were absolutely desperate to move cars as dieselgate had put the whole brand in a terrible light. Not to mention half the cars being on a stop sale, people weren't exactly wandering into the dealers.

A friend around then got an alltrak for ~18 new as they were so desperate.

 

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Seems now VW is changing focus to the electric vehicles but wont be “in the real market” until their 2024 models come out.

Based on what? You can buy nearly half a dozen different trim levels of the ID4 today. And quite a few versions of it's platform mates as well.

 

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My adventures are 6-700 miles a day. So that 250-ish miles between charges does NOT come close to my vehicle needs.

Then I think youre likely to be disappointed by any of the coming EV offerings as your use case is unique.
If you want to get an idea of what the scout stuff will cost, and how capable it might be, check out the specs on the rivian. Expensive and probably peaking at around 300ish miles.
Off road capability is diametrically opposed to efficiency, and you can overcome that with a giant battery but that costs a ton of money, obviously.

 

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by then, the battery on it will be poo.....

After 8 years? Lol not a chance.
Everything but the air cooled battery early leaf has a much much better BMS than that.