Volkswagen launches offensive: Affordable electric cars should conquer the market!

Volkswagen launches offensive: Affordable electric cars should conquer the market!

In a bold move, Volkswagen plans to launch a range of affordable electric car models[^1^]. The car manufacturer is not making this decision without reason: the group is facing major challenges, including cost pressure, increasing competition from China and the shadow of the emissions scandal. These factors mean that Volkswagen has to realign itself in order to continue to meet market demand.

The electric car market has changed significantly in recent years. While sales of combustion engines and electric cars remained stable in 2023, there was a decline in electric car sales in 2024 after the state environmental bonus was abolished. However, as elektroauto-news.net reports, sales of electric cars in Europe rose by a whopping 113 percent in the first quarter of 2025. Volkswagen currently has a market share of 26 percent, which underlines the importance of their upcoming models.

Future-oriented plans and measures

In order to meet the challenge of market changes, Volkswagen plans to cut around 35,000 jobs by 2030. This will largely be done through early retirement and severance payments, while redundancies for operational reasons will be excluded. The plants in Osnabrück, Dresden and Emden are about to close. Despite these serious changes, the company aims to achieve around 70 percent of its sales in Europe with purely electric vehicles by 2030.

In order to boost sales of electric cars, VW is offering attractive discounts of up to 6,000 euros on selected models. In May 2025, the market share of the VW ID.7 among newly registered electric cars was 7.3 percent, closely followed by the ID.3 and the Skoda Elroq. The planned new developments are promising: The Cupra Raval should be available as early as 2025 from 25,000 euros, followed by the Volkswagen ID.2 and the Skoda Epiqab in 2026. A very special treat could be the VW ID.Every1 in 2027, which will be available from 20,000 euros.

Market development and challenges

Developments in Europe are influenced by various factors, particularly EU import tariffs on Chinese electric cars and emissions policy requirements. Statista points out that no new cars with combustion engines will be registered in the EU from 2035, increasing pressure on the automotive industry to promote the switch to electric models. In 2023, petrol and diesel-powered vehicles accounted for less than half of new registrations for the first time, underlining a clear trend towards electromobility.

Although there is growing demand for electric cars, infrastructure remains an important issue. At the end of 2023, the EU had around 632,400 charging points, with around 60 percent of these charging points concentrated in Germany, the Netherlands and France. However, the expansion of charging infrastructure is still slow in some Eastern European countries.

It remains to be seen how Volkswagen will overcome the challenges, but the planned measures and new productions appear to be on the right track. The next few years will show whether the group can successfully master the shift to electromobility.

For more information read the articles on Mercury, elektroauto-news.net and Statista.