Tag Archives: Volkswagen

News

VW delays launch of new EVs for 2026

The decline in demand for electric cars in Europe has forced Volkswagen to postpone the introduction of new EVs until 2026. This was announced by German automotive analyst Matthias Schmidt in an interview with Bloomberg.

In early 2024, Volkswagen introduced its most powerful station wagon ever, the ID.7 GTX Tourer, and this year, there will be no new models. In 2025, the German brand will be selling old technology to new customers. The reason is a large number of unsold EVs, and the same problem is plaguing other manufacturers as well.

However, what is most troubling VW are two new electric models that it is developing in China. These are two mid-range models, one of which will be an SUV, and the German company is developing them in cooperation with the Chinese company XPeng. VW hopes that this will not disrupt plans and that with the arrival of these models on the market, the VW Group will increase annual sales in China to four million vehicles by 2030. In 2023, the VW Group sold 2.93 million vehicles in China.

Source: Bloomberg

News

Data from nearly 1 million VW Group vehicles leaked

In 2023, a study by the Mozilla Foundation found that many car manufacturers collect more data than necessary, and sometimes even resell it. Now, it has emerged that data from nearly a million VW Group vehicles has been compromised.

GPS data from a large number of EVs was left unprotected and publicly available for months, allowing unauthorized parties to create detailed profiles of the vehicles’ users. According to Reuters, the vehicle data could reveal the names and contact details of drivers, owners and locations for nearly 500,000 vehicles. Among the owners of these cars are a large number of people from politics and business, as well as people from professional groups dealing with security (police officers).

The problem was discovered by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), which informed VW, and the company quickly reacted and fixed the problem. However, given the length of the problem, it is not excluded that some of the data ended up with third parties. VW said the data is used to improve batteries and software, and is not used to create profiles about individuals or vehicle movements. Still, this incident should force EV manufacturers to do a better job of protecting vehicle data.

Source: Reuters

News

Fisker sold more EVs than VW

In June, the American company Fisker declared bankruptcy, and in October it went into liquidation. However, miracles are possible. Recent data shows that Fisker sold more vehicles in October than the German automaker VW.

So how did that happen? After the bankruptcy was declared, the Fisker car sale began. A judge approved the company’s plan to sell approximately 3,000 unsold Ocean electric crossovers, which allowed Fisker to sell 110 cars in October. Most of the vehicles were bought by the leasing company American Lease (New York), while the remaining cars were sold by dealers at high discounts.

In October, Fiat sold 135 EVs, while Volkswagen sold only 92 EVs. This is the result of bad decisions by the German manufacturer, which offers only two EV models on the American market, the ID.4 and the ID.Buzz. Problems with electronic door locks also contributed to the poor sales, which caused the recall of almost 100,000 ID.4 units.

Globally, Volkswagen is not doing well. The German car industry is in a major crisis, and rising costs and frequent employee strikes have forced Volkswagen to start laying off workers and moving production of some models to other continents.

A few days ago, it was confirmed that VW will move production of the Golf Mk8 to Mexico, and that 35,000 employees will lose their jobs by 2030 as a result of an agreement with the IG Metall union. Volkswagen says that the agreement combines job security, financial stability and a leading technological position in the field of sustainable mobility. They also said that the savings of more than 15 billion euros per year will help future investments until the end of the decade.

Source: S&P Global Mobility