All Press Releases

The Golf is the heart of the Volkswagen brand – and it stands for the term “bestseller” like hardly any other model. More than 37 million vehicles have been sold in eight generations. Volkswagen is celebrating the popular model to mark its 50th birthday next year. After all, the Golf has not only shaped mobility in Germany, but also in many other regions all over the world. However, the company is not just looking back as part of the birthday celebrations: the world premiere of the new Golf will take place already at the end of January – and like its predecessors, it will bring numerous innovations into series production.

The Volkswagen brand has achieved an important milestone in the “Accelerate Forward/ Road to 6.5” global performance program, with management and employee representatives reaching agreement on key points to streamline the company, following intensive negotiations. The objective of the three-year program is to secure the Volkswagen Group’s core brand competitiveness, ensure it is future-proof and sustainable in the long term. The Volkswagen brand aims to make a positive earnings contribution totaling ten billion euros by 2026, also to offset negative effects such as inflation and higher raw material costs. The operating return on sales is expected to improve sustainably to 6.5 percent in 2026. The Volkswagen brand projects that the program will deliver positive earnings contributions of up to four billion euros as early as 2024. To achieve this, the Company concentrates on performance-enhancing and cost-saving measures in the program’s three focus areas: optimizing material and product costs, reducing fixed and manufacturing costs and increasing revenues. The Company and the employee representatives have also reached agreement on staff reduction measures to cut personnel and labor costs. These measures will apply throughout Volkswagen AG. As such, from January 2024 the Company will extend its partial retirement schemes to all employees born in 1967 (and for severely handicapped employees born in 1968), to reduce administrative staff costs in particular. The current hiring freeze and access freeze to the Tarif Plus salary group will continue until further notice.

The new ID.7 from Volkswagen has received the top score of five stars in the renowned Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme) safety test. This puts the all-electric limousine among the best-rated models of 2023 in the overall ranking by the independent European test organisation. With its five-star rating, the ID.7 joins the ranks of the other ID. models that have also received the highest award.

The latest generation of the Volkswagen exit warning system helps to avoid dangerous situations when exiting the vehicle in inner-city traffic. The assist system can warn the driver and passengers about road users approaching the parked Volkswagen from behind. For example, within system limits, the system can detect cyclists, who are often among the most vulnerable road users. In addition to the driver and front passenger doors, the exit warning system also provides protection for the rear doors. The new ID.7, new Passat and new Tiguan are equipped with this assist system as standard. In the Golf, ID.4 and ID.5, the technology is optionally available in a technically specific form.

From now on, many models in the ID. Family now offer bidirectional charging with the "Vehicle to Home" function. With a home power station and the integrated Home Energy Management System (HEMS) from Volkswagen partner HagerEnergy GmbH, customers can cover as much of their household consumption as possible with their photovoltaic system. Both companies have launched a pilot project in Sweden in which an entire housing estate is being supplied with vehicles and the corresponding charging infrastructure.

The completely newly developed ninth generation of the Passat can now be ordered in the first countries in Europe. The model impresses with a new aerodynamic design, high quality and new high-efficiency drives. Deliveries of the new Passat, which is offered exclusively as a spacious Variant model, will start in the first quarter of 2024. With more than 34 million units sold so far, the Passat is one of the bestsellers of the Volkswagen brand.

Pre-sales for the all-new Tiguan start in Europe today. The third generation of the Volkswagen SUV has been completely redesigned and improved in all areas: new hybrid drives with an all-electric range of around 100 km make this SUV more efficient than ever before. A new and consistently intuitive cockpit landscape brings even more digital services and apps on board. The latest Park Assist generation automates driving into and out of parking spaces. The new adaptive running gear DCC Pro optimises comfort and dynamics. Features like the pneumatic massage function for the front seats and the new IQ.LIGHT HD matrix headlights have been derived from the premium Touareg model. The basic version of the Tiguan with a 96 kW (130 PS) 48 V mild hybrid drive will be available at prices starting from 36,600 euros (in Germany).

Volkswagen presents the first photos of the still camouflaged estate version of the all-electric top model ID.7 and, at the same time, introduces the new name: ID.7 Tourer. The new model is to be launched in Europe in 2024 – with plenty of space and high efficiency. Volkswagen will publish the final design in the coming months.

The German ADAC, Europe's largest automobile association, gives the ID.3 a good report card. The engineers at the Test and Technology Center in Landsberg am Lech have already covered more than 100,000 kilometers. The most important finding: the high-voltage battery still has a net capacity of 93 percent. An ID.3 Pro S with 77 kWh net battery energy content was tested for which Volkswagen, as for all other models in the ID. family, guarantees that the battery still has at least 70 percent of its original net capacity after eight years in operation or 160,000 kilometers of driving.

The Volkswagen Group’s Brand Group Core extended cross-brand cooperation in the first nine months of 2023. Further synergy and scale effects were leveraged through disciplined investments and increased cost efficiency between the Volkswagen, ŠKODA, SEAT/CUPRA and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brands. There was a slight increase in the overall effectiveness of the Brand Group – however, performance felt the impact of negative factors such as interruptions in production resulting from the floods in Slovenia.