It’s been just over one year since Arno Antlitz, Volkswagen Group’s chief finance officer, told employees the company had “a year, maybe two years, to turn things around” following a collapse in sales. Since then, things haven’t really changed. The German conglomerate sold 4.36 million vehicles in the first half of 2025—just 0.5 percent more than the same period last year, and a far cry from the 5.36 million cars it was selling during that same period before the pandemic upended the industry.
VW’s last-minute union deal last year prevented any factories from closing, and restructured the company’s future plans for its all-important Golf hatchback. Under this new plan, production of the current Golf will move to Mexico, while the original plant in Wolfsburg, Germany will be converted to build the next-generation Golf, an all-electric car. The move is expected to save the company around $4.7 billion a year.
Sounds like a plan, right? Well, it seems Volkswagen’s tightening finances are finally starting to catch up to it, and it’s causing delays. From Bloomberg:
The plan to retool VW’s Wolfsburg factory for next-generation electric vehicles has stalled due to budget constraints, pushing back the launch of the electric Golf by around nine months, the people said, asking to remain anonymous discussing confidential information.
Plans to move production of the existing combustion-engine Golf to Mexico have been delayed as a result, they added. The timing of the launch of the electric version of the T-Roc has also been affected, one of the people said.
VW declined to comment when reached by Bloomberg. I’ve reached out myself to see if the company can share any more info, but haven’t heard back yet.
The electric Golf was supposed to arrive sometime in 2029 to combat Chinese EVs in Europe, which have quickly become a dominant force in the region thanks to their lower costs. Losing another nine months isn’t the end of the world, but it’s also nine months where companies like BYD and NIO can further expand their market share.
Drama at the Wolfsburg plant doesn’t stop at its balance sheet, according to Bloomberg:
The delayed factory revamp comes as tensions run high among factory workers in Wolfsburg, where technical errors and equipment failures are bringing production lines to a standstill, the people said. It’s a blow for staff who had been brought in for night and weekend shifts to meet customer demand. Output could fall by as many as thousands of units a week for the rest of the year, one of the people said.
Bloomberg reports that Volkswagen is mapping out a spending plan for the next four years, with one of its sources saying some of that cash could be allocated to fixing the above problem points. Whether VW can keep up with all of these costs without a return to form for its sales numbers is unclear.
The normal Golf hasn’t been sold in America since 2021, but the GTI and the Golf R are still offered here. VW hasn’t said whether that’ll still be the case once the GTI turns into an EV, though I don’t think the company would turn its back on the enthusiast market like that (at least, I hope it doesn’t). Guess we’ll see!
They should’ve just kept advancing the egolf, the Chinese variant got a 40kwh battery, that’d have been plenty and just keep cranking gas and electric out on the same line.
I don’t understand the need to reinvent the wheel on a lot of these evs, yes it’s more efficient to build from the ground up but also costlier. Especially when considering a lower cost ev.
Battery tech and charging infrastructure has come far enough that sharing a platform for gas and ice can work ok, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good or good nuff. The main strengths of the Golf are handling and efficiency, the egolf still had both, just needed a little more battery, and better charging/battery cooling. But I guess they need to spend billions to make an affordable car, like Ford with its next ev truck.
> though I don’t think the company would turn its back on the enthusiast market like that (at least, I hope it doesn’t).
And, yet, they did. No 6MT on any Golf (R or GTai), and regular jabs about Harlequin teases are two I can think of right now.
I blame the ID series.
Design Technophilic cars with shit follow-through at a higher price point when the brand is built around “Peoples’ Cars” that are simple and reliable, then act surprised when people don’t want to buy them.
Frankly if the e-Golf was still being sold in the US today I might have gotten one instead of my Leaf. IMHO modern Golfs are a nice combination of classy without being flashy.
Maybe they should use some of that money they saved from cheating their emissions testing for all those years!
Or was all that money spent on bonuses for their top executives?
VW, get fucked.
Or it could be the the $33 Billion in fines for doing that cheating.
Not enough. And all the executives involved should be rotting in a prison cell.
At least four of them did, some in the USA and some in Germany, although not for long enough and I think they are all out now.
What they need (and hopefully have had as this was happening in 2017) is a clean sweep and a change of mindset where they no longer think that type of behavior is appropriate.
VW wants to get that plant online. I can’t see them taking out loans to shore up their finances. Issuing bonds would be the best way to go. If there is something preventing a bond issue (I’m more familiar with US corporate law, and not German), they could possibly whip out that dirty ‘D’ word. Dilution. Issue more shares – but when that is done, it dilutes the ownership stake of anyone else already holding VAG stock.
I’ll just say it as plain as I can. VW can’t afford not to build the new Golf.
While not a big seller in the USA, this is their most important, and highest volume vehicle in the world. They’ve moved over 35 million examples since their introduction.
I agree that it is very important, but it has slipped from being their top seller. According to VW’s 2024 annual report, looking at global sales (top of page 104) it’s in 5th place behind the Tiguan, Passat, Polo and Jetta.
Perhaps that’s part of their problem though … the Polo has become big enough for many people and is probably cannibalizing Golf sales. I just drove a Mk6 Polo on vacation in Norway and it was great – if they’d slapped a Golf badge on it I might have thought “wow, the Golf is back to being nice and compact again”, not “this thing is too small”.
They need to rename it the “Golf of America” and perhaps the orange one will let it bypass tariffs.
It’s probably way bigger than a Mk 1 Golf was.
It’s cool they’ve sold 35 million over the last 50 years or however long it’s been, but the Golf’s time has come. People simply aren’t buying cars like it in the numbers they were before, and IMO it’s silly for them to be producing a Golf and a Polo at the same time. One of them needs to go, and since the Golf is currently being outsold by the Polo, I think it’s clear which one it is.
There are global markets where both the Polo and Golf sell in big numbers. For some, the Polo is the only affordable car and the golf is the aspirational model. They both have their place in the lineup.
Waw, this EV golf is turning into a wave of bad luck.