Volkswagen Group has big plans for 2019 and beyond

The heads of the Volkswagen Group in Ireland recently gathered together to speak about their new lineups for 2019 and beyond.

MD Carla Wentzel CEO and brand director for the Volkswagen Group Ireland was leading the charge & introduced her teams. Each division head talked us through their immediate 2019 to 2020 and beyond product launches, including the ever increasing addition of electric across ranges.

The highly successful teams have a huge product portfolio and heavy competition in every sector. The VW Group has shown us where they need to improve and how they plan to provide for their customers across a wide range of vehicles, with advanced technologies and quality cars.

Overall the world car market is down -7.6% year on year, with alternative modes of transport ever in the commuters mind (cycling, scooters and other alternatives investigated). The public’s interest is piqued with the ever increasing introduction of EV’s to forecourts. It’s only the beginning but sales of EVs are up +271% on 2018 and the VW Group have plans in place to supply this ever increasing demand. By 2021, it’s predicted that 21% of sales will be electric.

With increasing traffic and congestion (Dublin is listed as the 6th most congested city in Europe), comes a change in how drivers are selecting options for their vehicles. For example, the selection of Auto transmissions is up 18.5%.

The SUV onslaught has yet to hit its peak with 16.9% up in SUV sales and even though VW Ireland down -1.8% compared to 2018, they continue to make greater strides in the development and quality of their vehicles.

It’s predicted that by 2021 there will be 21.4% electric mobility.  By 2025 the group intends to have 25% of new vehicles powered solely by electricity. By 2039, Volkswagen Group vows to produce at least one electric version of each of the groups 300 models. The most recent electric project, the ID3, has taken over 20,000 pre-orders in Europe. It will arrive in Ireland summer 2020 with a possible 550km range from the largest battery option.

Gerrit heimberg announced 2019 product launches to include the T- cross starting at €22,495 and the new Passat is coming in October with the latest GTE engine (55 wltp range) also due.

Niall Phillips brand director for SEAT, was happy to announce the all new Leon coming in 2020 as well as the Cupra Formentor SUV. As for electric, Seat will introduce the El Born EV with 420km range by the end of 2020 / beginning of 2021.

Ray Leddy head of marketing Skoda announced that within their lineup, the Superb and Octavia are best performing with 18,000 Octavia models delivered in the last 5 years, it’s currently the 4th best selling car in Ireland. Their newest model, the Skoda Scalia, launched in June and hopes to take some of the possible 18k+ hatchback sales for 2019/2020.

Thorsten Godulla, brand director of Audi, says the average age of the Audi portfolio is just 2.5 years with Audi’s A6 the best selling premium car in Ireland. A new A4 will be coming in Q4 and is in the top 5 of the premium segment. So the pressure is truly on as the UK import market is encroaching on new car sales here. Could we see the government possibly reduce VRT to combat this? Who knows. For Audi, the plan is to have more than 12 fully electric models between 2020 and 2025 on sale and this is where the future lies.