Volkswagen to make A-segment e-SUV

The Wolfsburg main factory of the Volkswagen brand will see an A-segment e-SUV join the C-segment ID. 3 from 2026 as the German OEM seeks efficiencies by making shared platform vehicles at the same factories. And a Golf BEV will be another model at the site by the end of the decade.

The firm aims to “set its sites up for profitable capacity utilisation”. “It is all the more important that we prepare our individual plants and the Volkswagen production network in Germany for the future,” says VW brand CEO Thomas Schaefer.

Efficient vehicle allocation and increased productivity are key aspects of VW’s aim for 6.5pc return on sales by 2026, a performance programme it calls "Accelerate Forward — Road to 6.5”. And the firm believes the rejig of its Wolfsburg plans means there is now no

need to build an additional plant at the location.

Instead, new electric models based on the scalable systems platform (SSP) architecture that will be introduced at the end of the decade will be integrated into existing and modernised structures at the main plant. The high-volume C-segment VW Golf will also be switched to BEV built on an SSP basis at the upgraded facility.

“We are using the transition to electromobility as an opportunity to reduce the complexity of our production operations and increase the efficiency of our plants even further,” says Christian Vollmer, the Volkswagen brand management board member for production. “We are systematically bundling vehicles based on the same architecture across all brands in our plants.

“By doing so, we will save significant investments in the integration of different vehicle architectures. Rather, we want our plants to produce several different models on the technical basis of one vehicle architecture,” he continues.

But the line-up of ID. 3, new A-segment SUV and Golf at the plant, as well as the new ICE and hybrid generation of the Tiguan, means something has to give. As a result, the Trinity vehicle project for a new SSP successor to the ID family — originally planned for Wolfsburg — will go instead to the Zwickau plant near Leipzig in eastern Germany.