After declaring this month that they’d no intention of doing so, Volkswagen executives are actually rethinking their plans to maintain manufacturing of the retro-styled electrical minivan, the ID Buzz, anchored solely in Hanover, Germany, with North American manufacturing now a risk.
So what modified between March 10 and March 21?
Shopper response — particularly in-person — because the model introduced the ID Buzz to South by Southwest competition in Austin, Texas, mentioned Volkswagen of America CEO Scott Keogh.
“Demand is thru the roof — it is tremendous excessive — so I believe we will have to offer a good quantity of strategic ideas on this entrance,” Keogh mentioned. “Clearly, there’s going to be an enormous increase at launch, I believe that is no shock. In my thoughts, I believe it is sustainable, whenever you see the quantity of demand.”
Keogh spoke of driving European-spec ID Buzz fashions in Austin this month, the place he was joined by Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen Group, the place the 2 executives had been in a position to see native response firsthand. Ralf Brandstaetter, CEO of VW passenger vehicles, mentioned final week that the model anticipates promoting 120,000 ID Buzz fashions per yr.
“Automobiles like this do a very powerful factor. Enterprise is nice, being profitable is nice, however get the model preferred and liked once more, that is the place we wish to get to, and that is what that is doing,” Keogh mentioned. “Being down in Austin with this automobile” was the spotlight to this point of his three-year stint as CEO of VW of America, he mentioned, “driving round and simply getting actually folks leaping in entrance of the automobile; that is superior.”
Talking March 10 to sellers gathered in Las Vegas for the NADA Present, Keogh was requested about classes realized from the corporate’s launch of the ID4 final yr that he would carry ahead to the launch of the ID Buzz.
In the beginning, he mentioned, “I might have pushed tougher to localize the automobile and localize the automobile sooner, for sure.” He mentioned then that demand for the ID4 was broader nationwide than anticipated, regardless of an absence of built-up charging infrastructure in lots of areas.
After his the speech, Keogh clarified to Automotive Information that ID Buzz gross sales volumes within the U.S. would doubtless be underneath 100,000 yearly — a benchmark that traditionally has allowed automakers ample scale to save cash on manufacturing.
“Truthfully, the ID Buzz, I do not see localizing,” Keogh mentioned then, “however the sky is the restrict, and we’re excited.”
Monday, nevertheless, that modified barely.
Keogh mentioned he acquired “a four-page e-mail” from a small vendor within the U.S. who he mentioned might need anticipated to promote one or two ID Buzz fashions when reservations formally opened later this yr for the minivan, which will not arrive within the U.S. till 2024. The vendor informed Keogh that he “had 75 reservations, folks put down $500 every,” in a dealer-run advert hoc reservation for the U.S. model of the ID Buzz, which hasn’t even been proven but.
Keogh mentioned he was shocked.
“To be slightly bit cynical, [a new microbus] is a automobile we have been in a single type or vogue discussing for over 20 years,” Keogh mentioned. However the ID Buzz combines “highly effective nostalgia” with “a completely new method to be a cool Dad, a cool household, a cool all the pieces,” and with demand as it’s, “we’d must react accordingly,” by localizing manufacturing to make sure the model can produce sufficient to fulfill North American demand.