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If any automaker sees a bright side to the electric car slowdown, outside of the Japanese companies that were skeptical from the start, it might be the Volkswagen Group, whose software division, Cariad, is still fuming over code that doesn’t do what it’s asked to do. German outlet Manager Magazin (thanks Carscoops) has been following VW’s programming woes for five years, as software issues thwarted the launch of the Mk8 Golf and ID.3. The successor to VW’s MEB platform, the Scalable Systems Platform (SSP), was due to hit the roads in 2024, but software delays have pushed it back to after 2026, with the final date still unclear. Group CEO Oliver Blume said a year ago that everything was back on track, telling investors that Audi, the VW Group brand that would be the first to launch an SSP-based product, would launch its cars in 2026 as planned. Two months later, German reports said SSP was backlogged again (or still) and that Audi, tired of waiting, had begun talks with Chinese automakers about buying their EV platforms. Audi’s SSP cars are now expected to go on sale in 2027 or 2028.
Meanwhile, for the Volkswagen brand, both Manger Magazine (translated) and Handelsblatt (translated) reported that coding issues have delayed the launch of next-generation models such as the electric Golf and ID.4 until 2029 at the earliest. That’s a delay of at least 15 months. At that point, the ID.4 will be nine years old. The market is very difficult to read, so no one knows how the SUV will be affected. But given that competitors are releasing new models, even at a slower pace, the aging ID.4 is expected to take a hit. US dealers sold 12,380 units in the first half of the year, down 15% from 2023 and on a worse track than the 11.3% increase in EV sales in the first half of the year.
