“Gasoline small cars will not survive”: Volkswagen is preparing a complete turn to electric cars in Europe
23 December 22:25
Thomas Schaefer, CEO of the Volkswagen brand, said that compact cars with gasoline engines have virtually no future in Europe. The tightening of EU environmental requirements makes the development of new models in this segment economically unprofitable, so the company plans to replace them with electric vehicles. This was reported by Auto Motor und Sport, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
What Volkswagen said
In an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, Thomas Schaefer explained that the segment of small gasoline cars (B-Class ) is in danger of extinction.
The reason is the increasingly stringent EU standards for average CO₂ emissions, which automakers must comply with in the coming years.
According to Schaefer, bringing gasoline models up to these standards would require so much investment that the final price of a car would become uncompetitive.
“The future of this segment lies with electric vehicles,” he emphasized.
Regulatory pressure
Despite the fact that the European Commission is discussing the possibility of easing the complete ban on the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines after 2035, automakers still have to
- reduce fleet emissions by 90% compared to 2021 levels;
- meet even stricter standards starting in 2030.
This, according to the companies, radically changes the economics of budget gasoline models.
What will happen to popular models
- Volkswagen Polo will become fully electric in the future.
- There are no plans to return the brand to the A-segment with gasoline models like up! or Lupo.
- The current gasoline versions of the Polo and T-Cross will continue to be produced in parallel with the electric versions for some time, but no specific dates have been announced for their discontinuation.
Betting on affordable electric vehicles
Volkswagen is focusing on making electric cars cheaper:
- An electric Polo is expected next year with a starting price of about 25,000 euros.
- In 2027, the production version of the ID.Every1 concept should reduce the entry price to around 20,000 euros.
- A Polo-sized electric crossover based on the ID.Cross concept is also in the works.
All new models will be based on the MEB platform developed specifically for electric vehicles.
Volkswagen remains the most popular automaker in Europe: in the first ten months of 2025, the brand sold more than 1 million vehicles in the EU.
