Volkswagen will shrink its model range by around half by 2035, and chief executive Thomas Schäfer says the reduction will happen through a "natural transition" to electric cars rather than a cull of specific nameplates.
Speaking at the Paris motor show, Schäfer pointed to Europe's 2035 end of combustion engines: once petrol and diesel sales stop, pairs like the Polo and ID Polo or T-Cross and ID Cross will collapse into one car each. He said the group has mapped its ideal 2035 line-up for Volkswagen, then repeated the exercise for Skoda and Cupra, and the combined result is a portfolio half its current size, focused on the most profitable products.
How the brands will share the remaining cars
The halving is a group-wide pledge across Volkswagen Group's brands, and Schäfer heads the Core group that contains Volkswagen, Skoda and Cupra, which is where the collaboration is concentrated.
Going forward, models will be run in "synergy groups" so the brands are not, in his words, "all fishing in the same spot at the same time". That does not mean only one brand per segment: the ID Polo, ID Cross, Cupra Raval and Skoda Epiq small EVs will all exist alongside each other. In overlapping cases, though, the project will be clustered and a single brand assigned to lead it.
The production version of the ID Every1 city car concept is the first example. It rides a cut-down version of the ID Polo's platform, and Volkswagen will be the only brand offering a car in that class, which Schäfer attributes to the small size of that market segment.
The logic is straightforward: engineering one city car and selling it under one badge costs far less than four brands each fielding a rival, and the savings can fund the electric transition. The trade-off for buyers is less choice within Volkswagen's own showrooms as overlapping petrol and electric twins are merged into single successors.
