Volkswagen Plans to Halve Its Line-Up Through Natural Attrition, Not Axed Models

Volkswagen intends to cut its line-up roughly in half, but the way it plans to get there is less dramatic than that number suggests. Speaking at the Paris motor show, chief executive Thomas Schäfer said the reduction will come through what he called a "natural transition" rather than a list of models being deliberately dropped. The wider Volkswagen Group is already restructuring, and it has promised to reduce the number of models and variants across its entire portfolio by around half.

Much of the shrinkage is tied to the European ban on new combustion-engined cars from 2035. Once that date passes, there is little sense in keeping a petrol Polo alongside an ID Polo, or a T-Cross beside an ID Cross, so those pairings fall away on their own. Schäfer said the brand first mapped its ideal portfolio for 2035, sorting cars by size and segment, and then repeated the exercise for Skoda and Cupra. The result, he said, is a range about half its current size, weighted toward the products that earn the most money.

The strategy also changes how the brands work together. Volkswagen, Skoda and Cupra all sit within the Core group that Schäfer leads, and future models will be managed through "synergy groups" designed to stop the brands competing for the same space. Overlap will not disappear entirely. The ID Polo, ID Cross, Cupra Raval and Skoda Epiq already share territory in small electric cars, but future projects like that will be clustered and handed to a single brand to lead.

The clearest example is the production version of the ID Every1 city car concept, which will sit on a shortened version of the ID Polo's platform. Volkswagen will be the only brand in the group offering a car in that class, which Schäfer attributed to how small the market is. For buyers, the practical result should be fewer near-identical models and a more clearly defined lineup, though the company has not yet said which other current nameplates will be affected.