Volkswagen may delay its flagship Trinity EV project from 2026 to the end of the decade under the leadership of new chief executive Oliver Blume.
The automaker’s flagship EV has been in the works for quite some time and was due to use the forthcoming SSP platform. Plans developed by former chief executive Herbert Diess called for production of it to start in 2026 at a planned €2 billion ($2.07 billion) factory near its headquarters in Wolfsburg.
However, not only has Blume reportedly pushed production of the Trinity EV back to 2030 due to delays in perfecting its software, but it is reported that the VW Group is rethinking the new EV factory. Auto News Europe indicates that VW’s management has questioned whether a new factory is needed or if the current assembly line at the main Wolfsburg plant could be adapted to build the Trinity.
Read: VW Teases Flagship Project Trinity EV
It is also claimed that the SSP platform will no longer be launched alongside this €2 billion factory.
In an internal message issued to employees, VW said it is “currently taking the opportunity to look at all projects and investments and check them for viability.”
The German car manufacturer was eyeing off a new factory in a bid to slash the production times of its electric vehicles. Diess frequently called for Volkswagen to follow the lead of Tesla and begin to build EVs faster and with more efficiency. Indeed, it takes Tesla just 10 hours to build a Model Y at its Berlin factory while VW needs three times as long to build an ID.3 hatchback.
A source from VW asserts that Blume has had to walk back some of Diess’s targets as they are thought to have been too unrealistic.
