Volkswagen: Combustion engines to live on beyond 2040

Reports of the death of internal-combustion power at Volkswagen are greatly exaggerated, the German company has confirmed.

In a move that had EV fans rejoicing, the world’s biggest car-maker last week said it would launch its final internal-combustion platform in 2026.

Volkswagen’s head of brand strategy, Michael Jost, told an industry convention that: “The year 2026 will be the last product start on a combustion-engine platform.”

But, as we warned in our story last week, that won’t mean Volkswagen will end production of petrol, diesel and natural gas engines in eight years.

Instead, it will be building conventional engines out to 2040 and beyond, with Volkswagen’s board member for development, Frank Welsch, hosing down widespread media speculation that their end was neigh.

“We are not stopping making combustion engines in 2026,” Welsch insisted.

“What Mr Jost was saying was a focus on the Paris [climate change] agreement and the start of developing this combustion-engined platform.

“There was a European focus in his comments. There will still be regions -- Africa, for example -- where we are selling optimised combustion-engined vehicles for many years after that point.

While Volkswagen has committed to €44 billion in battery supply contracts for its EVs and is converting three of its existing European factories from internal-combustion to EV production, burning fuel is far from dead at the brand.

“We are still committed to developing a wide range of power source for our vehicles: petrol, diesel, CNG, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure electrification,” Welsch said.

“Even if we know there is a plan for 25 per cent of our cars to be pure-electric in the future, that still leaves 75 per cent where we have to answer to customer demands!

“There will be many different solutions and they will vary depending on the region, he said.

Welsch also clarified that there could be at least three to four years from the “last product start” to production, pushing out the start date to 2030, meaning the first cars off the platform would be ending their first generations around 2037 at the earliest.

The company is noted for putting a wide range of vehicles on a common, flexible architecture (such as the current MQB that sits beneath everything from the Polo all the way up to the Tiguan Allspace and the Atlas/Teramont seven-seaters). Secondary models would continue rolling out many years after the start date of the architecture.

Volkswagen also typically double stacks its platforms, amortising their development costs across two full generations, meaning that end date could push out to 2044.