Volkswagen won't 'bring a car to the road again with thousands of problems'

Has Volkswagen gone cuddly? Company boss Thomas Schäfer has been in the job for just over a year, but there’s already a tangible difference to the brand that was evident at the Munich motor show. Speak to people around the brand and it’s clear he encourages an open atmosphere and invites input from junior staff – a far cry from CEOs of old.

He was engaging at the show, cracking jokes but being honest about the challenges the firm faces. Particularly from the Dieselgate events of 2015. “We were punished hard for stuff we shouldn’t have done,” he said. “People were upset because that wasn’t Volkswagen behaviour.”

Recent problems with its electronics have shown the toll that paying off huge fines and investing in electric architectures have taken on the German technical behemoth. There’s been plenty of change at the top, too, including the new CEO. “The company has become better,” Schäfer said. “We have more empathy for the customer.”

It’s certainly been a trait of Volkswagen in the recent past that the company knew best – its infotainment woes are partly down to an engineering mindset that decided how things should function and didn’t have any tolerance for real world use. It’s an approach that Skoda has already bucked against (the new Superb was in the news recently when it was revealed the Czech firm’s range topper will come with actual interior knobs for the aircon) and Volkswagen is slowly coming around to.  

Volkswagen Group supremo Oliver Blume pronounced in Munich that the company is now ‘design led’, but that doesn’t mean it’s abandoning its engineering credibility. It’s more a recognition of how people interact with its cars. “Driving ability is the base layer,” explained technical chief Kai Grünitz. “It’s not the thing you feel when you see a car for the first time. Apple went the same way – it started with how things looked and felt.”  

Grünitz also acknowledged more recent failings at Volkswagen, saying that he was re-examining the research and development processes to improve the cars that come to market. “We won’t bring a car to the road again like the Golf 8 or ID.3 with thousands of problems.”