One of the most successful and well-known Volkswagen products is … the humble currywurst, a type of sausage that Volkswagen has been producing for decades. The carmaker originally started churning out these sausages for its factory canteens in 1973, but these days they’re widely sold in Germany, complete with an actual Volkswagen part number. For the record, the part number is 199 398 500 A.
The dish consists of a bockwurst-style sausage with spicy ketchup and curry powder. You can find currywurst anywhere in Germany, from the Nürburgring to Checkpoint Charlie, and visitors to Volkswagen’s Autostadt theme park can also have it for lunch. A while ago, Volkswagen also offered it as a pre-packaged, microwaveable lunch.
As Auto Motor und Sport reports, Volkswagen has now expanded sausage production to China. Beginning in September of 2025, workers at Volkswagen’s Chinese factories have also been able to have the factory correct dish for lunch, and by the end of October, 120,000 sausages had been served. That’s a good number, but AMS says that VW produces seven to eight million sausages per year for Germany and 550 tons of ketchup. Yes, China has some catching up to do.
AMS also quotes Marcus Greiner, Volkswagen’s catering boss, as saying that the currywurst is the true equalizer at VW, something that the board of directors and the factory line worker both enjoy. The actual recipe for the sausage is protected as carefully as with Coca Cola and the Big Mac sauce: only Greiner and Dietmar Schulz, head of food production at VW, control the recipe. VW’s Chinese sausages are produced locally, not imported from Germany.
A key figure is that Volkswagen makes twice as many sausages per year as it makes Volkswagen branded cars. In 2025, VW produced 4.73 million vehicles globally, out of which 1.3 million were made in Europe and two million in China. The biggest bump in production figures was in South America, with an 18.5 percent improvement to 568,200 vehicles compared to 2024. Both US and China saw around an eight percent drop, while European production was up 5%.
Volkswagen’s passenger cars have been essential in Chinese car production. The second-gen Jetta and the Santana sedan version of the second-generation Passat were produced under license in China for decades, as some of the first “modern cars” made in the country after joint ventures with Western carmakers were allowed in the 1980s, and VW quickly formed partnerships with FAW and SAIC.
By 1997, the Santana had 90 percent local parts content, and the image above shows a facelift version sold in China.
Top graphic images: Volkswagen; DepositPhotos.com
At least something is going well for VW lately.
Going to the Fatherland in a couple of weeks and can’t wait to have currywurst
washed down with a brekfaat beer.There’s nothing wrong with a cold bottle of breakfast.
VW needs to do a worldwide release and boast more unit sales than any other vehicle manufacturer, and possibly more unit sales in each market than any other vehicle manufacturer. Great way to drum up stats that can generate hype.
Packaged food may be their true calling especially in markets they aren’t competing as well. Their brand is still strong just better values elsewhere. Sell the whole line up maybe go a bit ikea in the dealers like the banks with the coffee houses. Fast food is dying because it’s over priced so there is room in the market for canteens and cafeterias again.
Always here for the food related content.
These sausages make an amazing corn dog. Might sound funny to use a currywurst for a corn dog, but the perfectly smooth grind of the pork gives you a nice, clean bite. The kind of smoky paprika flavor works perfectly with the corn, and of course a German sausage is going to be great with mustard. I’d love to try it with the ketchup, I’ve only ever had the sausage itself, and then of course I had to play with my food.
My wish came true! Thank you, Autopian.
Currywurst should be the name of a VW paint color.
Well, there is VW color code LN1N „Currygelb“ („curry yellow“), which is close enough, I think.
If it’s being produced locally in China I will bet my house that the secret recipe is no longer a secret. Time to check Temu for currywurst.
I’m not so sure I wanna trust Temu for something edible. Alibaba or better for me.
Living an Alibaba life on a Temu budget lol
It having a part number implies that Sausage Release Engineer is a job title that could be achieved at Volkswagen.
Wonder what revision they are on or if they got it right on the first try.
The current revision has an issue where the tension causes your belt to fail, leading to catastrophic toilet damage.
If it’s belt failure, I think the damage is done before you make it to the toilet.
Vinfast started by selling packaged food products before moving on to making disappointing cars, no reason VW can’t run that playbook in reverse.
Is Big Mac sauce a closely guarded secret? I thought it was just hamburger relish and mayo.
I’m pretty sure it’s just thousand island dressing.
Exactly.
I don’t think its that, exactly, but pretty close. Its like somewhere between thousand island and Russian.
I’m pretty sure Ginos has switched to normal thousand island dressing on the Giant though
It’s Thousand Island, some sweet pickle relish, and a bit of mayo to smooth out the tart of the relish
That’s mildly surprising, since a sausage isn’t half as difficult as a car to build. I thought it would be like 10:1.
“the Santana had 90 percent local parts content”
Pretty good meat-to-filler ratio.
I have Currywurst trauma from my days as a broke-ass, backpacking teenager. It was quite a boon to discover cheap company cafeterias that would pretty much let anyone in.
I want so badly to try this.
Part number is 199 398 500 A
I’m pretty sure I can’t order it in to a Canadian dealer.
Also, the ketchup has it’s own part number, 199 398 500 B
The most amazing part is that based on the part # 199 398 500 A, it hasn’t had any revisions since initial release, unlike their car parts which receive a new part # suffix every time the wind changes.
That must be the top-level assembly part number. The subassemblies and components have probably had revisions, but they don’t roll the revision on the top level assembly. If they could provide the full BOM with revision levels that would be helpful.
Haven’t even tried to replace the manual “Open Here” tab with a haptic control?
When you had this part, the wind will change again ????
I love how that Santana image is basically showing this boring-ass sedan as a shingin gift delivered directly from the heavens! Stunning.
Caused more toxic emissions than Dieselgate.
There’s a scandal in there somewhere.
Among other things.
Maybe the humble Currywurst will save VW’s declining sales in China after all. Who knew the answer wasn’t EVs and software defined vehicles, but a shift into the culinary sector.
This will probably spur Elon to open a chain of Tesla Diners all across China.
Currywurst is one of my favorites whenever I’m in Germany, but I’ve never had the VW version. If only they sold the ketchup in the US. It’s got an actual VW part number which is so cool. Not that I can’t make my own currywust sauce (which I do). Frankly I’d also buy the frozen meal if it were available. Maybe they can do a deal with one of the two Aldi’s and make it available once or twice a year at Aldi or Trader Joe’s. (Yes, there are 2 Aldi’s in Germany (Nord and Sud), and one goes to market in the US as Aldi (Sud) and the other is Trader Joe’s (Nord).
It would slot in well with Aldi’s Oktoberfest specials every year.
I swear it went on sale again in the US last year, or maybe I mis-remembered and the article said it would be available for ordering through the dealer. I do remember seeing something that said you could buy it in the US recently but it was very expensive, like $20 a bottle. The VW version is good, I got a bottle when they gave it away for free in ’24.
Edit: yeah but it looks like it’s gone again
…I want this gray market import, but I don’t think it’s going to last the 25 years…
By that time it’ll probably be pretty gray, alright.
That would certainly be the wurst.
I run currywurst as a special, occasionally. Despite a review of “quite good” from some Germans passing through a festival I was at, locals don’t seem to have a taste for it. What a shame.
As a Curry, I put curry powder on a lot of things. But now I have a new use for it. I suspect it won’t be quite as popular as VW’s version, though.
This is the man who put a million on black, and it came up red. This is the man who married a Sex Kitten, just as she turned into a cat. This is the man who fucking loves curry sausages.
How long until the sauce recipe is stolen and VW loses all that business to a home grown company.
Anyways, most positive thing I’ve seen from VW in a few years now. Good for them, looks like a real strong start to 2026?