Volkswagen’s 2024-2025 Strategy: Products, Partnerships, and a Renewed Push for Electrification**

In 2024, to address its ongoing crisis, Volkswagen published its “Top 10” program, which sets priorities for performance, product development, digitalization, software, platforms, battery technology, mobility solutions, sustainability, and organizational effectiveness (source). These action areas dominated Volkswagen’s recent strategy:

2024: 30 new models and China-Strategy

VW introduced 30 new models. There are many reasons for this—Chinese competition, a focus on autonomy, rebranding efforts, etc.—but still, 30 new models sounds like a lot to me. I remember when Steve Jobs returned to Apple and radically simplified their product lineup.

It is now clear that China is an important market. As such, VW has launched China-specific models and formed local partnerships, including collaborations with Chinese OEMs like Xiaopeng and SAIC, across both software and hardware development. I’m curious how their name will be perceived there. After all, Volkswagen translates to “The People’s Car.”

2025: fully autonomous, series-production vehicle

2025 is not as interesting as 2024; it is dominated by the ongoing “model offensive” and U.S. import tariffs. The most notable development, however, is Volkswagen’s progress in autonomous vehicle technology. Together with MOIA, they launched the ID. Buzz AD—a fully autonomous, series-production vehicle that has been specially optimized for use in mobility services.

Conclusion: VW the archetypal German company

With VW working to solve operational issues, expanding into China, and cautiously entering the field of autonomous driving, they seem like the archetypal German company: carefully launching new initiatives while reinforcing the core business. This stands in stark contrast to Tesla.

Link to VWs full Q2 2025 earnings call transcript