If you are holding off buying a Volkswagen because you are waiting for a plug-in hybrid version of your favourite model, you better start reconsidering – or move to China.
The head of the Volkswagen brand, Herbert Diess, said recently that the company has no plans to sell PHEVs in the North American market, according to a report from Car and Driver.
As the company continues to recover from the dieselgate emissions scandal, it has shifted its focus to battery electric vehicles and hybrids.
While the BEVs and hybrids will be offered in North America, the PHEVs will not. The reason? According to Diess, they just don’t make sense in the market given the emissions standards and the fact they are not incentivized by tax incentives in many jurisdictions here.
Diess even hinted that the automaker could also pull the plug on PHEVs in Europe, but VW will definitely be selling them in China.
Volkswagen will now rely on its Modular Electrification Toolkit (MEB) as the basis for all BEVs across the model line-up.
The automaker already has five planned BEVs, with more certain to be added, Diess said. Volkswagen wants to sell one million BEVs a year by 2025, with 20 per cent of those in North America.
In the interview, Diess reportedly said Volkswagen wants to see the Tiguan become the world’s top-selling sport utility vehicle, despite not making it available as a PHEV for some major markets (North America and possibly Europe). However, a non plug-in hybrid version could be in the cards globally.
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