When the revised Volkswagen Golf makes its debut in November, the famed nameplate will be offered in fewer variants. The Mk7 Golf is currently offered in hatchback, estate, convertible, Alltrack and SV bodystyles; however this lineup is set to be streamlined to reduce cost and complexity, according to Autocar.
The move was hinted at through a recent decision to stop selling the convertible in the United Kingdom, one of the markets where open-topped cars have been more popular. Instead, the company will put greater emphasis on crossovers.
“We need to simplify the product offering of the next Golf and have fewer variants, because we have got to get more cost-effectiveness into our company. We need to be more agile and more innovative, and this is one example,” said chairman Herbert Diess.
Diess is said to believe that the MQB architecture which underpins the Golf range has been over-engineered for the price points the products are positioned at, and is said to have pushed engineers to reduce related expenses. Alongside costs reductions, Diess is also pushing for greater margins due to concerns that the company’s £1.5 billion (RM7.66 billion) investment in the new MEB platform – on which the I.D. concept sits – will further strain the company’s profitability.
There’s another challenge for Diess, in the form of the workforce behind the Golf. “One of the biggest hurdles we still have to take is a new deal with the unions. I am looking for higher productivity and to restructure the value chain to focus on new technology. We are talking, and I hope we can have an agreed plan to have a fix in place by 2020,” he said.
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Worst timing to buy VW … Bad quality to worse quality
Dont play play with the quality of DSG at volkswagen!
Ask VGM to shut down production in Malaysia and import only la. Even before dieselgate, VW already known for DISCOUNT BRAND. After DSG fiasco, you got stocks tried to let go with huge discount for 2 years also no people buy. VPCM gotta choose: “NO DISCOUNT” or “NO SALES”
inb4 nasib baik Proton X nak join.
summary = VW has no more money due to dieselgate scandal.
Now, go and ask you German Government to bail you out. simple solution.
FYI krs, VW just reported net profit of 2.28 billion euro in the 3rd quarter of 2016.
In detail news says, the “profit” mainly came from cost cutting. Not sales as number is shrinking after dieselgate. VW even stop producing and selling diesel models in some countries.
Fikir betul ke, the profits are from increase in sales of Audi & Porsche la. Looks like your detail news are not detail enough. You should read the Bloomberg news.
FYI, VW are on course to hit 10 million units in sales by end of December despite the dieselgate.
I say it is the most sensible thing to do in-order to cut cost. Not many chairman dare to say it in public like Herbert Diess.