As of: February 9, 2024, 1:29 p.m
By: Patrick Freiwah
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The drive change at Volkswagen is taking time: electric cars are slow sellers, while the demand for combustion models is driving VW to special shifts in production.
Wolfsburg/Munich - The Germans should do without one of their favorite “children” in the long term: If the EU sticks to the planned phase-out of combustion engines from 2035, a showcase competency of the German auto industry - drive technology with combustion engines - will finally be sidelined.
For some time now, some manufacturers - including Volkswagen - have been focusing heavily on electric cars and want to gradually convert their model range to electric vehicles.
However, the masses are not following along quite as well as they had hoped in the boardrooms: only a few car buyers see reason to buy an electric car at this point in time.
VW runs special shifts for combustion engines - Golf and Co. continue to be popular
This is currently evident at VW: Vehicles with combustion engines continue to be very popular with the majority of consumers: According to
Focus.de,
there are special shifts for the popular Golf, Tiguan and Touran model series at the Wolfsburg headquarters.
Capacity has also been expanded in the construction of the new VW Passat generation (B9), which is now rolling off the production line in Bratislava.
Electric car production in Zwickau: combustion models from VW are in demand, demand for electric cars is significantly lower.
© IMAGO/Uwe Meinhold
Business is currently going well for other model series: the small car VW Polo and the SUV VW T-Roc are giving Volkswagen great sales figures in Germany, according to January statistics from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA).
According to Auto Straßeverkehr,
a leasing campaign with “extremely low rates”
is playing a role in the increase in new Golf registrations .
Volkswagen: Sales lag behind electric car targets
In contrast, production of the VW ID.3 (Wolfsburg) and VW ID.7 (Emden) models was reportedly throttled again due to stagnating demand.
The same applies to the VW Passat (B8), whose production cycle is coming to an end.
Meanwhile, the production lines for the VW ID.4 and ID.5 models manufactured in Zwickau were idle again for several weeks at the end of 2023.
As part of the end of the e-car subsidy, VW recently drastically reduced prices.
However, what becomes apparent when looking at the overall situation is that the group simply cannot meet its originally high expectations: global sales increased by a fifth to 394,000 electric cars in 2023.
So while VW's traditional bestseller models continue to sell well, there are still problems with the return on the expensive electric cars.
This leads to a new VW strategy.
(PF)