Change of course in the future of the Volkswagen group, a change of direction that will bring important consequences, although not all of them are bad. And one of the most important has to do with the destination of the mythical Volkswagen Golfa car that the new compact electric ID.3 seemed to have condemned, but that now it could have a replacement as part of a more ambitious and aspirational strategy in the form of an electric car.
The problems that the Volkswagen group is experiencing with the development of the new SSP platform and the software associated with it, is causing the group’s next generation of electric cars to have had to be delayed. We are talking about significant delays and in key models of Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley and Porsche, which together with the software problems already present in the MEB platform, has ended up causing the departure of Herbert Diess as CEO of the group.
The revolutionary Volkswagen Trinity will not arrive until 2030, when it was scheduled for 2026
The replacement of Diess by Oliver Blume has supposed the confirmation of these delays in terms of 1 to 4 years with respect to the dates originally planned, now focusing all the group’s efforts on its CARIAD software subsidiary in order to avoid further delays, but also to polish the current software. And this is especially important, because unlike Diess, Blume is willing to continue developing and evolving the MEB modular platformwhich will mean polishing its current defects, improving its capabilities and enabling the arrival of more models in the short-medium term.
Such is the revision of plans that Volkswagen is undertaking, that even The launch of its new flagship, known as the Trinity project based on the SSP platform, has already been postponed to 2030 which was scheduled for 2026. This car was to be the new technological benchmark for the brand, and for the group, offering up to 700 km of 100% electric autonomy and level 4 autonomous driving.
And how does this affect the Golf? Faced with this situation of delays, Volkswagen is considering new ideas in order to continue with its electrification plans., making use of the current platforms and being able to take advantage of the productive capacity foreseen in factories such as the one in Wolfsburg. Thus, on the Volkswagen table is now the possibility of launching a fully electric Golf and/or Tiguan on the marketnot to replace the ID.3 and ID.4, but to complement them from a different vision of the electric vehicle than the one offered by the ID range.
Keeping the MEB platform alive will mean polishing its software problems, improving its features and launching new models
With this move, Volkswagen could maintain its electrification plans and give work to its factories, also doing so without requiring a large investment since the new electric models will be manufactured on the MEB platform. And it is that we must not forget that another of the key points of the Trinity project was in the reduction of manufacturing costs, something in which the ex-CEO Herbert Diess was very committed in order to equate his costs with those of Tesla. .
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