VW boss said the electric Volkswagen Golf has been pushed back, with the 2026 Geely EX2 and Kia EV4 rival unlikely before 2030: report

Volkswagen global CEO Thomas Schäfer has confirmed an electric version of the German giant’s next-gen Golf 9 will appear much later than its originally scheduled 2028 launch date.

As recently as March this year CarsGuide reported that VW AG Chairwoman of the General and Group Works Council Daniela Cavallo had flagged a mid-2027 shift of production of the internal-combustion Golf from Wolfsburg in Germany to the company’s Puebla plant in Southern Mexico.

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But speaking overnight at the Financial Times Future of the Car Summit in London, CEO Schäfer has pointed to the end of the decade as the earliest launch point for a Golf EV.

“We have a fantastic line-up now that we do not need an electric Golf in 2028. We are well set with what we have in our portfolio with our vehicles," he said.

One of a panel of close to 90 speakers at the summit, including Stellantis CEO Antonia Filosa, Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa and Ford Europe President Jim Baumbick, Mr Schäfer went on to give a progress update on the VW Group’s all-new 800V Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) set (according to VW Group CEO Oliver Blume) to bring price parity to ICE and EV models.

In a pointer to a timing pushback for the ID.Golf, Schäfer said, “SSP, we will roll it out across the brands. We will start with the premium brands first. It will start with Audi, then Porsche, then us and on and on.

“It sounds like we take so long (with SSP), but for us we are looking at scale and you have to have scale in this game or you'll never make margin parity,” he said. 

The rescheduling may also reflect Blume’s reported announcement in February this year of a planned 20 per cent reduction in costs across all VW Group brands by the end of 2028.

As detailed by Manager Magazin, in response to falling profits caused by higher input costs, a softening Chinese vehicle market, increasing competition from Chinese brands outside their domestic market and US tariffs, Blume and group CFO Arno Antlitz presented a "massive" savings plan at a closed-door meeting with the company's top executives in Berlin in mid-January.

Manager Magazin quotes one insider predicting even more radical steps than those recently taken by VW, in which around 35,000 jobs are to be cut by 2030.

“It will also involve plant closures,” they said.