There goes the greening
Renault and the Volkswagen Group brands have temporarily stopped supplying plug-in hybrids and some electric models in Germany. Due to the shortage of chips and other parts, the supply is apparently simply unsustainable.
You will have noticed that the current situation in the world also causes the necessary problems for the car industry. We report almost daily about production stops, long delivery times, higher prices and delayed models, but in Germany Renault and the Volkswagen brands go one step further.
Automobilwoche announces that from today Renault will apply a temporary supply stop for all plug-in hybrids and fully electric cars. This gives the delivery problems an extra sour side, because these ‘green’ models are desperately needed to achieve the European CO2 reduction targets. What does not work, however, does not work, and the chip shortage mainly affects cars with a lot of electronics on board. The delivery stop at Renault would also apply to the brand new Mégane E-Tech Electric. Delivery has been temporarily suspended, but it is now unclear when it will be possible to order again.
Stock only
The suspension at Volkswagen concerns in any case the plug-in hybrids. Those cars have even been completely removed from the price list for many Volkswagens and Audis, so that only (sometimes mild-hybrid) diesel and petrol versions remain. If you search for a plug-in hybrid ‘TFSIe’ on the Audi website, you will receive the following message: ‘Der Audi *model name* ist momentan nicht configurierbar und nicht bestellbar. Find current news and equipment for your Audi Partner’. In other words: this model is currently not available to order or configurable, please contact your dealer for stock models. We also find something similar with the Golf GTE and the Seat Leon e-Hybrid. With Skoda and Cupra it is still possible to opt for the plug-in for a number of models, but not for the Skoda Octavia, for example.
Netherlands
Volkswagen’s electric models, such as the ID3 and ID4 and Audi’s Q4 E-tron, can still be configured and ordered in Germany. However, there is a big caveat to this, because Volkswagen immediately informs anyone who tries that that there will be a long delivery time. The latter also appears to be the situation in the Netherlands for the time being. When asked, the importers of Volkswagen and Renault deny that the delivery stop also applies to our country, but it is clear that the delivery time can certainly increase considerably for electric models.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl