Overview
- Volkswagen’s CEO Thomas Schäfer told the FT’s Future of the Car event in London on Wednesday that the Golf EV will not launch in 2028 and he gave no new date.
- Schäfer said the group will introduce its next-gen SSP platform first at Audi, then Porsche, before Volkswagen, setting the Golf EV behind those rollouts.
- SSP is Volkswagen Group’s new EV architecture with 800-volt hardware, more advanced batteries, and a software stack developed with Rivian, which the company views as key to reaching EV price parity.
- Volkswagen wants recent and incoming models on its current MEB+ platform — the ID Polo, the updated ID.3 Neo, and the ID Cross — to gain market traction before an electric Golf debuts.
- The Golf EV is slated for production in Wolfsburg, while the combustion Golf shifts to Mexico, a move VW links to cost and pricing pressure from fast-growing Chinese EV rivals.