When Thomas Schäfer took office as CEO of the Volkswagen brand in the summer, one of his first questions was: Where is your electric Tiguan?

That was not to be seen in the hodgepodge of future cars that the product developers and designers presented to him.

Consequence: The hodgepodge is cleared, the electric Tiguan is built.

Holger Apple

Editor in business, responsible for “Technology and Engine”.

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That's what the hall radio in Wolfsburg says, and the consequences are in documents that are available to the FAZ.

Schäfer, who was born in Marburg and has a pragmatic Hessian type with a preference for straight sentences and thoughts, follows the motto: what you have, you have.

As there would be: an only partially competitive electrical construction kit called MEB and the extremely strong model names Golf and Tiguan.

Ad hoc measures revolve around these two pillars and the recently disappointing design.

The MEB is no longer to be replaced as planned around 2025 and remain untouched until then, but raised to a competitive level.

Above all, the deficits compared to the offer from Hyundai/Kia have frightened the new top management around Schäfer and the group chairman Oliver Blume.

Electric luxury sedan will not be available until 2028

The MEB is heavy, charges slowly and doesn't have enough range, but it's apparently not as bad as it's sometimes made out to be.

And he has potential.

Therefore, a significant amount should be taken to strengthen it.

There is talk of up to 1.5 billion euros.

The specification specifies 175 to 200 kW as the charging speed, which should increase to “Tesla level”.

The range of electric cars should increase significantly.

The next battery generation, which is to be installed under the name of unit cell in 80 percent of all models of the VW Group, is preferred.

It will not only be used with the next construction kit called SSP, but already in the MEB.

This fits in with the report from last week that the planned Trinity electric luxury sedan will not be released in 2026 as planned.

Of course, the swing doesn't come entirely voluntarily.

VW suffers from the disaster of its sluggish and breakdown-prone software development.

The market launch has been postponed by 18 months and is now scheduled for 2028.

In addition, the Trinity is said to be no longer designed as a sedan, but should take strong SUV bonds.

This segment continues to grow dynamically, almost all manufacturers are aligning their portfolio accordingly.

With a new strategy, there is a question mark behind the new plant building

The postponement will probably have repercussions on Audi and Porsche, but above all it puts a question mark over the planned new plant in Wolfsburg, which should start next year outside the previous factory premises.

In any case, it is difficult to convey that there is no room for a fresh model in a factory the size of Monaco.

In addition, the general conditions have changed.

The EU 7 pollutant standard recently adopted by EU politicians contains intermediate steps which, according to the VW management, will accelerate rather than dampen the move away from the internal combustion engine.

For this reason, space for future electric cars should be created on the existing lines at the Wolfsburg plant, on which vehicles with combustion engines have been built up to now.