Volkswagen plans to chop area of interest fashions just like the Arteon hatch and wagon to enhance effectivity of its operations and in flip increase earnings, the automaker mentioned on Wednesday.
The brand new technique, which goals to enhance earnings by 10 billion euros (roughly $10.8 billion) and develop return on gross sales to six.5% by 2026, with out chopping jobs or wages, was introduced by VW model boss Thomas Schäfer at a gathering held with unions at Volkswagen Group’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.
“We are going to deal with a small variety of—although real—Volkswagen core fashions,” he mentioned. “This can cut back complexity and ship larger earnings.”
Schäfer did not present a timeline for the discontinuation of the Arteon, however it’ll probably be when VW begins manufacturing of the same 2025 ID.7 electrical hatch (and soon-to-be wagon) on the Arteon’s plant in Emden, Germany, across the finish of the yr.
2021 Volkswagen Arteon R
Schäfer additionally did not say what different fashions may doubtlessly be dropped.
A VW spokesman confirmed the Arteon will survive into the 2024 mannequin yr, however did not say whether or not there will likely be subsequent mannequin years for it.
Along with dropping fashions, VW will even look to scale back the variety of choices and variants inside remaining mannequin traces. This can begin with the ID.7, which VW mentioned can have a lot fewer configuration choices in comparison with the present Golf.
There will even be additional consolidation of platforms and manufacturing with different quantity manufacturers throughout the VW Group. An instance of that is VW’s upcoming subcompact EV previewed earlier this yr by the ID.2all idea automotive. VW mentioned fellow VW Group model SEAT is taking the lead on the car’s growth and manufacturing, in addition to with comparable fashions from Skoda, SEAT, and Cupra. Equally, Skoda has been made the lead for VW’s subsequent Passat and the associated Skoda Excellent.
