Development has been paused indefinitely
VW Group has officially confirmed that development of the electric ninth-generation Golf has been delayed indefinitely due to the financial hardships within the company. The announcement was part of Wolfsburg’s results for the period January-September 2026, painting a difficult picture for the German automaker that is especially unfortunate given Europe’s COTY shortlist is an EV clean sweep.
David Powels, Chief Financial Officer of the Volkswagen brand and Brand Group Core, said, “The market environment remains extremely challenging — and special items are weighing on our result. This makes it all the more important for us to systematically continue on our chosen course and sharpen our priorities further…One specific measure is therefore to temporarily pause development work on the future ID.Golf at the Volkswagen brand until we can securely accommodate the necessary investments”.
The CFO said he is happy with the sales performance of their current EV lineup, but he is also worried about tightening profit margins. “Our electric vehicles are attractive, and we are seeing a significant upturn in demand. At the same time, they do not yet achieve the margins of our combustion engine models — this means the rising share of BEVs is currently increasing cost pressure. We are therefore systematically working on product costs, economies of scale, and a competitive cost base to achieve the necessary profitability for our electric models as well.”
The current Golf and ID.3 march on
Development of the fully electric Golf hasn’t been running smoothly. Initially planned to launch in 2028, the rollout of the compact hatchback was pushed back due to software glitches and brand prioritization for the new Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) architecture. Following the latest delay, the ID.Golf could hit the roads sometime in the 2030s. This means that the current ICE-powered eighth-generation Golf will likely stick around for over a decade, as it was introduced in late 2019 and received a mid-lifecycle update in early 2024.
The same applies to the electric ID.3 which entered production in 2019, benefited from mild updates in 2023 and from a more extensive facelift in 2026 when it adopted the ID.3 Neo badge. Based on the timeline, VW will likely consider introducing more styling and tech updates for both the Golf and the ID.3 Neo, in order to keep them relevant against newer competitors. Still, the hatchbacks will retain the existing MQB Evo and MEB underpinnings, leaving the most important changes for their SSP-based successor utilizing a new software architecture co-developed with Rivian.
Financial struggles
Of course, the ID.Golf is not the only casualty of the financial crisis within the company. The VW Group lineup will be halved over the next few years, and the workforce will be further reduced by up to 50,000 people totaling around 100,000 lay offs since 2024. As for VW Group’s results for the first nine months of 2026, they were mostly negative compared to the same period in 2025.
More specifically, net cash flow plummeted by 67% to €1.434 billion ($1.60 billion), operating result dropped by 8.3% to €4.326 billion ($4.825 billion), and revenue dropped by 0.5% to €106.417 billion ($118.67). Finally, sales were reduced 0.5% to 3,753,000 vehicles, and the operating margin fell from 4.4% last year to 4.1%. Out of the separate brands of the group, VW Passenger Cars was hit hard with 1.8% fewer sales, 3% less sales revenue, a 45% worse operating result, and a 44% drop to its operating margin.
