Volkswagen suspends development of electric Golf as quarterly loss reaches €5.822 billion
Key Facts
Volkswagen has temporarily halted development of its future electric car, the ID.Golf, saying work will remain suspended until it can safely absorb the necessary investments. David Powels presented the decision as a measure to protect investment discipline in a difficult market environment, while the company said development was temporarily paused, not cancelled. The decision coincides with the announcement of an after-tax loss of €5.822 billion in the third quarter of 2026, compared with €1.072 billion in the same period of 2025. The group also posted an operating loss of €5.860 billion, compared with a loss of €1.299 billion a year earlier. Reuters described the quarterly loss as the largest since the fourth quarter of 2015 and attributed it to exceptional charges of nearly €8 billion.
Third-quarter revenue fell 6.3% to €75.277 billion, from €80.305 billion in the corresponding period of 2025. Group deliveries to customers fell 14.3% to 1.885 million vehicles during the quarter, compared with 2.199 million a year earlier. Over the first nine months, deliveries declined 9.0% to 6.011 million vehicles, from 6.604 million in the same period of the previous year. The figures show activity contracting alongside lower revenue, while exceptional charges weighed on reported results. Customer deliveries should not be confused with vehicle sales, as the group reports the two indicators separately.
Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said U.S. tariffs were weighing on the group, the Chinese market was contracting and competitive pressure in Europe was rising sharply. He added that the company currently earns less from electric cars than from combustion-engine vehicles, making it more difficult to expand investment in the electric transition amid weak profitability. Operating return before special items was 3.8% in the first nine months of 2026, a level Antlitz described as "far too low to continue investing heavily." By contrast, the company said electric vehicle deliveries in Europe rose 20% in the third quarter.
Volkswagen cut its 2026 fiscal-year operating return forecast to a maximum of 1%, from a previous range of 4.0% to 5.5%. The group expects revenue of about €315 billion for the year. Antlitz said the current level of return before special items did not allow the company to continue investing heavily, while it is working on a total cost program of about €31 billion. The program includes, according to the company, simplifying models and structures, reducing vehicle and overhead costs, and improving factory efficiency. The target puts spending discipline and profitability at the center of the company's plan to secure future investments.
The suspension of ID.Golf development is particularly significant in light of Volkswagen's earlier plan for its Wolfsburg plant, which called for an electric Golf and another model based on the SSP architecture near the end of the decade. The company now says development is temporarily paused until it can absorb the investments, while German broadcaster ARD reported that the car is currently targeted for launch in the early 2030s. The company did not specify an exact launch date, and ARD said the works council believes the delay does not necessarily mean a postponement. The plan remains tied to reprioritizing investment as the group faces quarterly losses and operating pressures. In trading on October 29, Volkswagen shares rose 1.7% by 11:00 GMT after initially falling following the results announcement.