Volkswagen’s strategic planning round unlikely to conclude before 2026

Typically, the Volkswagen Group decides in its strategic planning round in November, deciding which models will be built at which plants over the next five years. However, the current planning round is unlikely to be completed even this year, because key model decisions have yet to be made.

Image: Volkswagen

It had already become clear in recent weeks that Volkswagen would miss its usual November deadline, although there was still hope that a definitive plan for the critical plant allocations might be finalised by the end of this year. However, according to a report by the German publication Automobilwoche, citing company sources, the planning round will not occur at all in 2025.

Decisions are reportedly still pending at both the management and supervisory board levels to approve the five-year plans. Additionally, insiders claim the existing proposals are “incompatible with the available investment budget.” Last year, the November deadline was also missed due to a wage dispute that delayed planning. Only shortly before Christmas 2024 were key decisions on models and plants finalised as part of the wage agreement, including the announcement that production at the factory in Dresden would cease in 2025.

While there is no wage dispute this year, critical decisions regarding model strategy and upcoming platforms remain unresolved at the management level, directly impacting plant allocations. One concrete example is Audi’s US planning: reports indicate the Ingolstadt-based brand is evaluating a dedicated US SUV; earlier reports suggested an SUV model with a range extender, potentially based on the platform of the new US brand Scout and manufactured in Scout’s own facility. However, this US model has yet to receive official approval or announcement.

There are also reportedly unresolved questions about the upcoming SSP electric platform. The ‘Scalable Systems Platform’ is designed to eventually replace the MEB for volume brands and the PPE for premium brands, while also enabling 800-volt electric architectures for volume models. As a result, the new platform is in high demand among brands eager to adopt the SSP as soon as possible. Previous reports have mentioned models such as the VW ID. Golf, ID. Touareg, or the next-generation Škoda Octavia (as a production version of the Vision O concept), as potential first SSP-based vehicles. With the platform expected to debut by the end of the decade, this planning round should now be making foundational decisions about which models will use it, and where and when they will be produced. It remains unclear what specific information or decisions the supervisory board and executive board still require to finalise these plans.

One decision has already been confirmed: the new regional division of the production network for the Core brand group, which includes the volume brands. As reported, the reorganisation will first take effect on the Iberian Peninsula, where Spanish and Portuguese VW plants will operate under joint leadership. The 22 plants of the brand group outside China (where planning is managed separately with joint venture partners) will be divided into five regions: Germany and Poland (under VW Commercial Vehicles) will form one planning unit, the Iberian Peninsula another, and Eastern Europe will be combined with India. The remaining two regions will cover North America and the Southern Hemisphere.

automobilwoche.de (in German)

This article was first published by Sebastian Schaal for electrive’s German edition.