Volkswagen delays long-range EV project

The Volkswagen Group’s newly appointed CEO Oliver Blume has reportedly delayed its flagship Trinity electric vehicle project due to concerns that software won’t be developed in time.

Project Trinity that aims to bring longer range and self-driving EVs has been pushed back its production target from 2026 to around 2030, according to Automotive News Europe.

Trinity EVs would be underpinned by the German conglomerate’s unified Scalable Systems Platform (SSP), which is heavily focused on software to allow owners to purchase new features via over-the-air updates and be capable of Level 4 autonomous driving.

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This means the SSP platform, slated to debut in 2026, will not be launched alongside Project Trinity.

The group – which is in charge of car brands such as Volkswagen, Cupra, Skoda, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini – also planned to establish a new Project Trinity factory in Wolfsburg to accelerate production times and better compete with Tesla.

However, those plans are now up in the air, with a source telling Reuters that Volkswagen’s management board is questioning whether the assembly line within the current Wolfsburg main plant could produce flagship Project Trinity EVs instead.

While it’s unclear how much driving range Trinity EVs may offer, for context, the Volkswagen ID.Aero sedan concept based on the existing Modular Electric Toolkit (MEB) platform offers a claimed driving range of up to 620 kilometres on the WLTP cycle.

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Volkswagen ID Aero concept

On the other end of the spectrum, Volkswagen Group will offer more affordable compact electric cars based on a shortened version of MEB from 2025.

Locally, the firm currently sells the Audi Q8 E-Tron SUVs and the Porsche Taycan sedan and wagon.

The Cupra Born small hatch will join early next year as its first dedicated MEB platform electric car to land in Australia, with the Skoda Enyaq family SUV set to launch later in 2023.

Volkswagen will sell its ID.4 and ID.5 medium SUVs locally by late 2023, with a facelifted version of the ID.3 hatch and iconic ID.Buzz van to potentially follow in 2024. The Audi Q4 E-Tron crossover is on the cards, too.

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Audi Q4 Sportback 50 e-tron

Volkswagen Group Australia has been vocal for criticising the nation’s lack of fuel efficiency and carbon emissions targets inhibiting head office to bring more electric car models Down Under.

“We’ve come a long way when there's obviously still some huge headwinds out there in the supply chain that are affecting us probably more significantly than some other brands here in Australia. Despite that, we are selling pretty much everything we can lay our hands on, and our order banks are really strong across all of our brands – including Cupra now that's just started up,” Volkswagen Group Australia boss Paul Sansom told Wheels in September.

“There's a new vision and strategy for Volkswagen Group Australia now, we've really set ourselves on becoming the dominant force here as a European manufacturer and importantly we want to be the leader in electric vehicles as well.”