VW Group to Halve Lineup as China Sales Plunge 36.6%
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- Volkswagen Group reported Q2 sales fell 8.6% globally and are down 6.3% year-to-date, with executive Marcos Schubert citing an "around 20 percent" total market decline in China that the company could not escape despite newly introduced locally developed EVs.
- China sales for VW Group collapsed 36.6% in Q2 and are down 25.9% for the year, dragging results in the Middle East, Africa, and the rest of Asia-Pacific along with them.
- Volkswagen brand in the United States posted a 24.9% Q2 sales increase, selling nearly 90,000 cars in three months, led by the Tiguan (+152.5%), ID. Buzz (+564 to 1,249 units, +121.5%), and gains for the Jetta, Golf GTI, and Golf R.
- Porsche and Audi both struggled — Porsche sold roughly 3,000 fewer cars in Q2 with only the 911 (+39.4%) advancing, while Audi of America fell 3.0% for the quarter and 17.0% year-to-date.
- Volkswagen Group announced it will immediately shrink its portfolio by up to 50%, with surviving models offering up to 75% fewer variants, and cut its annual production capacity target from a planned 12.0 million units to 9.0 million.
- Industry rumors flagged in the article suggest Volkswagen may close four plants and lay off 100,000 employees as part of the broader retrenchment.
Why it matters: The China collapse — 36.6% in a single quarter — is structural, not cyclical: even VW's locally developed EVs failed to offset a market that is shrinking by roughly a fifth, forcing a Group that once targeted 12 million units of annual capacity to pull back to 9 million and slash its lineup by up to half, putting 100,000 rumored jobs and entire nameplates on the chopping block.
