Many people now claim that VW builds cars that are not competitive. But is that true? A small car customer overview.
In 1970, Volkswagen began researching purely electric vehicles together with Bosch, Varta and RWE. In 1972, the first van to come onto the market was a T2 series van. However, the lead batteries that were standard at the time did not allow for long ranges.
Peter Lustig on VW: “Maybe one day we’ll get these petrol stinkers off the road”
The first electric Golf appeared in 1976. Even Peter Lustig later reported on it in the children’s program “Löwenzahn”. The man in the overalls dared to make a prediction that manufacturers like VW are now trying to fulfill with a great deal of agreement: “One day, if we keep thinking and inventing, we might get all these petrol-smelling cars off the road.”
So Volkswagen didn’t do too badly at the start when it entered the field of e-mobility. They once again seemed to have the right instinct: in 2013 they converted their popular Up small car into a fully electric version. In 2021, the e-Up made it to second place among the most popular e-cars in Germany with almost 31,000 units sold. An e-Golf was now also part of the range. The success was not least due to the generous subsidies that Berlin granted buyers.
It was undoubtedly strategically wrong that VW does not offer an affordable, fully electric small car the size of a Polo and has to leave this market segment to competitors such as Stellantis (Opel, Fiat, Peugeot), Renault or Chinese suppliers for the time being. The ID.2 for around 25,000 euros will not be available until 2026 at the earliest, and a small entry-level car (ID.1) for 20,000 euros will not be available until 2027, if at all.
Source: Stern
