Question marks hover over Europe’s best-selling car. The Volkswagen Golf may disappear from the German manufacturer’s offer after the end of the current eighth generation due to the advent of electromobility. The development of the successor is probably not worth it, admitted the new head of Volkswagen, Thomas Schäfer.
“We’ll see if it’s even worth developing a new car that won’t last another seven or eight years,” Schäfer told German Welt am Sonntag newspaper in response to the future of the Volkswagen Golf. This is significantly influenced on the one hand by the upcoming Euro 7 standard, on the other hand by the year 2035 and the ban on the sale of cars with an internal combustion engine.
The new emission standard will come into effect in 2025 and, according to Schäfer, will significantly increase the price of cars with a combustion engine. The head of Volkswagen talks about three to five thousand euros, which will be swallowed by technologies for cleaning exhaust gases. And in 2035, new cars with internal combustion engines will disappear from Europe completely, as in June voted by the European Parliament. This is a big blow for the Golf, which in the current eighth generation also offers a plug-in hybrid version, but mostly still relies on gasoline and diesel engines.
In addition, Volkswagen has an electric car on offer that is similar in size to the European bestseller: the ID.3 model, which has found over 17,000 customers in the first six months of this year. For comparison, the Golf is at less than 89 thousand, according to Jato Dynamics statistics.
The German manufacturer is currently preparing the modernization of the eighth Golf, which premiered at the end of 2019 and its sales started at the beginning of 2020. If we calculate the standard life cycle of a new car around six years, the ninth generation of the Golf should appear around sometime in 2026, maybe a little later later, if the car manufacturer decides to extend it due to the transition to electromobility.
Then there is also the question of how much the arrival of stricter emission standards will make the compact model more expensive, and whether it will still pay off for customers even in view of the ID.3 model and the eventual arrival of cheaper electric cars. Thomas Schäfer also stated, among other things, that he does not count on the fact that combustion engines would be a cost-effective alternative to electric cars in the medium term. And in the event of a significant increase in the price, in the end it would probably not even be worth it for Volkswagen to produce the ninth Golf.
In any case, the decision about the future of the model will come quite soon. “We will know more in the next twelve months,” forwards Schäfer. Even last year, the then management of the German brand claimed that The Golf is a key model for VW and will definitely get another generation with internal combustion engines.
But the Golf is not the only traditional name from the Volkswagen range whose future is uncertain. It is already clear that the new Passat will be offered exclusively with a station wagon body, the sedan will end and an electric car will take its place, probably with the name ID.7.
From time to time, speculations about Polo’s future appear in foreign media. Similar to the Golf, Volkswagen is working on electric alternatives. Namely, it is mainly the ID.2 model, which should come to the market in 2025 and cost around 25,000 euros. Its twin will also offer Škoda and Cupra, as recently indicated by a set of design sketches and concept Cupra UrbanRebel.
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