VW

EXCLUSIVE: Golf may be discontinued

In March 2021, Volkswagen made a point of announcing that the new generations would definitely be introduced for the Golf, T-Roc, Tiguan and Passat models. This announcement may be a bit premature in the case of the hatchback duo, as the company's newly appointed CEO remains cautious about the Golf's future. In an interview with the German newspaper Welt, Thomas Schäfer said that the decision to develop the ninth generation model had not yet been taken.

The former Skoda boss took over the reins of the flagship VW brand on April 1 of this year and is questioning the Golf's future given the rising costs of developing combustion engine vehicles.

The Euro 7 regulation is expected to be adopted in the coming years and, according to Schaefer, will increase the prices of cars with internal combustion engines. He went on to say the end is near for cars worth €10,000 in Europe because aligning internal combustion engines with stricter emissions legislation would increase development costs.

VW senior management has announced that the now-defunct Golf will receive a facelift, but there's no question of a full-fledged Mk9 at the moment. He highlighted that developing a new ICE vehicle, which is unlikely to have a traditional 7-8 year life cycle, may not be worth it, adding that developing Euro 7 vehicles is "extremely expensive".

Read between the lines, his statement that the Golf 9 will not be sold for a full seven to eight years is due to the ban on the sale of new gasoline or diesel cars that will come into effect in the European Union in 2035. The current generation model has been around since 2019 and will likely get a facelift in 2023/2024 which will be on sale for another three to four years.

Not long ago, our publication wrote that VOLKSWAGEN begins production in Chattanooga of its first American electric VW ID.4 car Volkswagen announced the start of mass production of the ID.4 electrified crossover at a factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The car is the first electric car the automaker has ever built in the US.

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