Regardless of being the only sales winner previous month, Volkswagen still deals with expenses associated with the Dieselgate emissions scandal. On its way to cut costs, two of the German automaker’s most popular nameplates, the Beetle and the Scirocco, may be pertaining to an end after their present models.
Speaking on the future of the designs at Volkswagen’s 2017 Annual Session, VW board member Arno Antlitz had stated: “The Beetle and Scirocco are agents of an emotional and appealing class of vehicles, however it [VW product preparation] is not always about continuing cars from one generation to the next.”
The retro, bug-shaped People’s Car is among the brand’s slowest selling models, only moving about 25,000 units in Europe in entire last year. The choice to continue to keep the Scirocco from sports-compact fans in the US was not made due to varying markets or tastes, however is a result of exchange rates.
Antlitz went on to inform that Volkswagen’s brand-new and upcoming automobiles like the ID EVs and the Arteon luxury sedan “would fill the emotional void left by the departure of the Beetle and Scirocco.”
Like we noted, the Beetle is one of the slowest-selling cars in automaker’s range, with just 5,774 units being sold throughout Europe in the first quarter of this year and an overall of 25,127 in 2016. Less than fifty percent numbers of Sciroccos were sold in the same period: 2,054 until the end of March 2017 and 10,752 in all of last year. The two models’ total 2016 sales were topped by those of the Golf in January this year alone.
