March 31, 2021—Volkswagen earned some media coverage earlier this week with the supposed announcement it would soon be going by the brand name "Voltswagen" in the U.S., but the rebranding was revealed to be an early April Fool's Day joke.
Joke or not, the Associated Press reports that numerous outlets, including the AP itself, reported the news as fact on Monday and Tuesday.
The German automaker predicated the false name change on the idea that it was a show of commitment to electric vehicles, the AP reports. A company spokesman even went so far as confirming the rebrand as true, before walking it back a day later.
The AP report notes how rare it is for a large corporation to release false news and points out how VW is still rebuilding its image following its 2015 diesel emissions cheating scandal.
