The Volkswagen Golf Is No Longer The People's Car It Once Was

While the Golf has been on sale since 1974, weathering all kinds of market changes, time has caught up with it. Production of the Golf has plummeted over the last decade, and the automaker expects it to get even worse over the coming years. That decline means job cuts are coming, says a new report. That means, much as it did for the Beetle, a shift in production from the brand's home plant in Germany to a cheaper site in Mexico.

According to Reuters, Volkswagen Wolfsburg works council chief Daniela Cavallo warned workers yesterday of coming changes. "From 2027 onwards, a temporary four-day week is not an unreasonable scenario," Cavallo said. Cavallo urged workers at the plant to take extra shifts now, while they can, to help them get through the expected four-day week.

The compact hatchback burst onto the market in 1974, and though it is now in its eighth generation, the car has crushed the old People's Car, the Beetle, in total sales. That's 37 million vs 21.5 million, to be more precise.

As recently as 2015, Volkswagen was building more than a million units per year. Most of those were put together at its plant in Wolfsburg. According to a chart seen by Reuters, that production fell to just 300,000 last year. And it's expected to drop to 250,000 this year.

"The trend is an unstoppable decline [...] the Golf must go to Mexico! Sooner or later. Otherwise, our plant will eventually find itself at the bottom of these statistics I just showed," Cavallo said.

A move from Wolfsburg to Puebla was set in stone late last year. Part of a massive deal between VW and its unions included the gas Golf's move out of Wolfsburg from 2027. It will be replaced, Cavallo worked to assure plant employees, by the electric Golf as well as a next-generation T-Roc crossover.

Rise Of Tiguan Little Consolation To Wolfsburg Workers

VW plans to reduce its total vehicle capacity in Germany, as well as its workforce, significantly. Despite the best efforts of unions, VW plans to cut group production from 1.8 million units per year in its homeland in 2024 to just 1 million in 2028. The workforce is expected to shrink from 111,000 to under 75,000 by 2030, according to VW's 2025 annual report.

Volkswagen's global bestseller is now the Tiguan SUV. The popular compact crossover saw 910,926 units built in 2019, its best year. Estimates for 2024 put production of the SUV at around 700,000, split between plants in Germany, China, and Mexico.

Golf sales in the US had fallen off particularly hard. VW sold more than 60,000 units in 2015, 2016, and 2017, but those were outliers versus the decade before. VW announced in early 2021 that it had ended production for the US. Only the GTI and Golf R would live on in this country.