Volkswagen is delaying the Audi A4 E-tron, another model planned among the first vehicles on the company's Scalable Systems Platform, until at least 2029, a year later than originally scheduled, Electrek reported, citing Autocar. The move follows an already announced delay of the all-electric Golf. Volkswagen brand CEO Thomas Schäfer said in an internal memo at the end of October, reviewed by Reuters, that Golf EV development at the Wolfsburg plant was being delayed because "we simply can't afford this work right now." The VW Group posted a third-quarter operating loss of 5.9 billion euros, or about $6.5 billion, its largest quarterly loss since the Dieselgate scandal in 2015. The Wolfsburg plant was about 300 million euros, or $334.5 million, short of its cost-cutting targets, the memo said.
The Golf EV had first been planned for 2028, then pushed toward 2030 earlier this year. Schäfer has linked the slower timetable to the SSP platform, which Volkswagen is developing with Rivian and which has taken longer than expected, again because of costs. In 2023 the company said the 800-volt SSP would be a "single future backbone with integrated electric and electronics architecture," with more than 40 million models expected to be built on it, and that investment and research costs would be about 30% lower than on the current MEB platform. Software troubles in the internal Cariad division led Volkswagen to form a joint venture with Rivian for a next-generation software-defined vehicle architecture. In March, Volkswagen said test vehicles, including the ID. EVERY1, Audi and Scout models, had undergone "comprehensive evaluation" and validated over-the-air updates.
The A4 E-tron delay is not only about software, Autocar reported. Audi demanded significant changes so the car would more closely match the current gasoline A4, including individual footwells for front and rear passengers, which would require repositioning the battery, and a 48-volt electrical system instead of the 12-volt setup first planned. BMW already has a new i3, and Mercedes-Benz has a C-Class EV, leaving Audi further behind in the mid-size electric sedan segment if the 2029 date holds. VW's works council has said the Golf pause will not change a 2030 launch, promising to make up lost time.
The verified news is a further SSP-linked postponement, with the A4 E-tron now expected around 2029 and the Golf EV still pointed at 2030. It is not a cancellation of either car, and it is not a claim that the Rivian software joint venture has failed, only that costs and extra Audi hardware requests have pushed the calendar out again.