About a month ago, VW announced plans to cut budget spending in order to cope with the immense “Dieselgate” scandal, but even so, the company said that it will soldier on with its core models, including the Phaeton.
In fact, the German car manufacturer went to great lengths to detail its plan with the future Phaeton; a plan that saw the flagship model as the embodiment of the first all-electric Volkswagen-branded model; a plant that unfortunately was put on hold.
In its effort to “align investment activity” with the current situation, Volkswagen will delay the Phaeton’s electric successor, along with other projects – such as the new design center in Wolfsburg (which will save the German company approximately EUR 100 million), and the construction of a paint shop in Mexico – as Matthias Müller, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen, said:
“We are operating in uncertain and volatile times and are responding to this. We will strictly prioritize all planned investments and expenditures. As announced, anything that is not absolutely necessary will be cancelled or postponed. We will review and potentially cancel further expenditures or spread them out to a greater extent in the next few weeks, but without putting our future viability at risk. Together with the works council representatives we will make every effort to keep our core workforce on board.”
Still, the chairman announced Volkswagen’s intention to increase expenditure on alternative drive technologies by approximately EUR 100 million next year, saying:
“We are not going to make the mistake of economizing on our future. For this reason we are planning to further increase spending on the development of e-mobility and digitalization”
Renderings courtesy of RM Design
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