VW Is Renting Thousands Of Parking Spaces For Cars It Can’t Sell
Volkswagen is being forced to rent thousands of parking spaces in order to store cars it can’t legally sell yet.
The Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Testing Procedure (WLTP, for some reason), which replaced the frankly useless New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), has affected many new cars’ emissions and fuel economy to such a degree that many can’t legally be sold until they are modified and/or recertified.
We’ve already reported on how the VW Group’s EA888-powered hot hatchbacks have had to sacrifice power in order to meet the new regulations, punting some of them back to output levels they had years ago.
But while the search for lasting fixes goes on, cars that are rolling off production lines before being fettled have to be stored somewhere. VW has reportedly rented a number of multi-storey car parks and there’s talk of using the still-delayed Berlin-Brandenburg airport, which, as you’d imagine, has quite a lot of space that’s not being used right now.
VW is also shutting down certain factories for part of the week to slow the current over-supply of cars. The main Wolfsburg plant will shut on 1-2 days per week in August and September. Zwickau, which makes parts for the Golf, and Emden, which makes the Passat, will also reduce their operating hours.
Source: Automotive News Europe
Comments
Can’t they sell them under older norms since they seems to have been designed before the new emition test?
I wouldn’t mind having a car that has higher emissions than the limit. Because given the fact that my actual car is a 2002 Citroen C3 (Petrol i4 1.4L, 75hp), I think the emissions would be lower than the Citroen, The fuel consumption may be lower too…
Something should be done about these for people owning 10+ years old cars.
Seriously these Emissions regulations are just uselessly tight.
All they want is more money and they don’t realise that All means of transport - cars, planes, etc.- make the LEAST of CO2 Emissions every year.
there’s talk of using the still-delayed Berlin-Brandenburg airport
Honestly, you could have put this in a satire article, and I wouldn’t have noticed. Because that’s hilarious.
For those who don’t understand: there’s the Berlin-Brandenburg airport that was supposed to be finished in 2012, but after six years beyond deadline and decupled budget it still isn’t even close to being finished. That whole project at this point is basically a meme in Germany. Apparently there are about ten thousand parking lots that are already finished but can’t be used because the airport can’t be used. It would be really funny if it weren’t so sad.
South Africa is also a RHD market but who don’t yet need to obey the EU emission laws.
There’ll be a few of the locals very keen to buy a unit at the cost VW pays for storage….
#ifOnly
“You know what? Let’s make emission regulations tighter, because ecology and stuff! And also let’s make so that if car isn’t compliant with these new regulations it can’t be sold, even if it was made before changes. That will force manufacturers to put those cars in the open, but it will do less enviromental damage, than driving it. Probably” - government logic.
VW is being forced to park their low af emissions cars because they are not “environment-friendly enough” and here i am driving a 3.0 liter N/A diesel from 1982. WLTP would be mad.
did renault have the same issue? because in the netherlands in the city that i work there are thousands of renaults parked behind a couple of warehouses since december
Jeez VW slow the hell down!
Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Testing Procedure sounds too much like a socialist authoritarian regime.