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October 23, 2019 05:28 AM

VW reduces investments, manufacturing time for new Golf

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    Volkswagen Group's MQB architecture helped the automaker to keep down production costs and reduce manufacturing time for the new Golf compact car that will launch in Europe in December.

    The platform, which will underpin 50 million vehicles from VW Group brands over the new, second generation, helped the automaker to keep a tight lid on costs, said VW brand's production boss, Andreas Tostmann.

    "Through an even higher standardization in machinery and processes, we succeeded in reducing investment by more than half versus its predecessor," Tostmann told reporters during a press briefing. "Our platform strategy is delivering," he said.

    The current Golf marked the switch to MQB from the previous PQ35 platform that only underpinned compact cars.

    As a result of the new car utilizing the same modular architecture, Tostmann said VW only needed to replace about 20 percent of the equipment needed to build the body, largely tools to make design-specific parts like side paneling.

    Production will be also centered now in Wolfsburg, Germany, which has an installed capacity of 450,000 units across all Golf derivatives.

    Management had decided in August of last year to shift production out of two other VW plants in Zwickau, Germany, and Puebla, Mexico, with the end of the current seventh generation. 

    Manufacturing time could also be reduced by about 4 percent, according to Tostmann, despite adding further complexity to the vehicle including another 100 meters of cables and 31 more electrical connections.

    Tostmann estimated that VW has overall spent an amount in the mid hundreds of millions of euros to produce the eighth-generation of its compact hatchback in Wolfsburg.

    About 8,400 employees will build the latest Golf at the brand's main German factory using roughly 2,700 individual parts.

    More than 35 million Golfs have been built since the first model debuted in 1974, proving a huge success and setting the benchmark in Europe's compact hatchback segment.

    Golf sales in Europe fell by 14 percent in the first eight months to 281,871 vehicles, according to JATO Dynamics market researchers. The Golf's closest competitor in the volume compact segment was the Skoda Octavia, whose volume was flat at 156,422 units, followed by the Ford Focus, whose sales rose 14 percent to 155,686.

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