Volkswagen Golf hatch gross sales being paused in early 2023

Volkswagen expects to report near zero Golf hatchback gross sales within the first quarter of 2023 resulting from a provide concern affecting a selected chip.

A spokesperson for the corporate advised CarExpert that VFACTS figures for the primary quarter will consist solely of the unaffected wagon and any leftover hatchback inventory.

The lacking chip powers the reversing digital camera, and Volkswagen Australia says it gained’t import autos with out this function.

Volkswagen is adamant, nevertheless, that the Golf isn’t being pulled from the market just like the Ford Focus and that that is merely a brief impediment.

Prospects seeking to buy a Golf and who don’t need to wait will likely be directed to the T-Roc, which the corporate says will likely be in excellent provide subsequent 12 months.

The spokesperson additionally advised CarExpert that Volkswagen is not the “Golf firm” and that even with this provide blackout, the model remains to be anticipating an general 20 per cent uplift in gross sales.

“Our planning quantity for Golf is definitely actually robust, it’s only a disgrace which you could’t see what that demand actually seems like within the numbers and what the planning quantity actually seems like,” stated Michelle Rowney, head of product for Volkswagen Passenger Automobiles in Australia.

The Mk8 Golf arrived in Australia in mid-2021, although it went on sale in Germany on the very finish of 2019.

The changeover interval noticed Golf gross sales plummet 80.8 per cent general in 2021. The model didn’t full its rollout of the redesigned vary till earlier this 12 months with the arrival of the R fashions.

The vary is now full, at the least till the GTE plug-in hybrid’s arrival, which isn’t anticipated till the second half of 2024 on the earliest.

The identical digital camera chip concern can be affecting the associated Caddy line.

“We’re nonetheless hamstrung by provide, the most important problem we’ve bought on that automobile in the mean time is the rear-view digital camera,” stated Ryan Davies, director of Volkswagen Business Automobiles in Australia.

“And we don’t have fairly sufficient provide of that in the mean time, which is affecting our manufacturing.

“So we’re ways in which we are able to navigate that restriction with out diminishing the protection of the automobile.”

Volkswagen has already been coping with semiconductor-related provide points for the Golf, whereas the Tiguan is one other mannequin that has been considerably affected.

Going into 2023, the corporate says it would have robust provide of the T-Cross, T-Roc, Tiguan Allspace, Passat, Arteon and Touareg.

Restrictions will proceed, nevertheless, for the regular-length Tiguan.

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