Last week, we took an in-depth look at the Ford Mondeo’s successor to the endangered traditional mid-market segment. Its direct competitor from Germany, the Volkswagen Passat, will also be continued. It is expected to be a bit more traditional than the Ford.
Volkswagen recently confirmed at a presentation of its electric future plans that the well-known non-fully electric models will remain in the program for the coming years. Wolfsburg casually confirmed once again that the Passat will ‘just’ get a sequel. It was not that obvious, because we live in a time when supply and demand in the car industry are quite different from when the current Passat saw the light of day. People want to drive something ‘high’ and increasingly fully electric. The new Passat seems to be neither, and that’s a somewhat daring move.
A blink of an eye
Wolfsburg will continue to carry its MQB models alongside the all-electric MEB line-up for the time being. It ensures that the choice for electric driving or a more conventional form of drive is in front of you at a glance when you walk into the Volkswagen showroom. You either go for a fully electric model, or for a more traditional type. The ID3 or the Golf, the ID4 or the Tiguan, and so on. The next Passat will therefore be an immediately recognizable model that looks in line with the Golf and is clearly not yet on the ‘alternative tour’. This is clearly visible in these illustrations. The Passat is expected to get a front with strong Golf influences, with pretty pinched headlights that are connected to each other using a fairly thin grille. At the rear, the Passat might get a bit more quirky with a thick ‘beam’ lighting across the width of the butt. A feature that is already quite consistent with the car that we expect to become the electric alternative to the Passat: the production version of the ID Space Vizzion. How does Volkswagen approach the Passat sedan? Well not. That will almost certainly not come. The Passat Variant intended for Europe has been selling better than the version with butt for years and of course it saves Volkswagen the necessary development costs if it only plans the last generation of the Passat as a Variant. After all, it still has to be profitable enough now that the traditional larger middle class has now become a kind of niche product.
Plug-in
The fact that the Passat does not become fully electric does not mean that you do not have to take the charging cable. In fact; you will probably get that in most cases. Volkswagen is focusing more on plug-in hybrid powertrains for new MQB models. In addition to the well-known TSIs with outputs of between 150 and 220 hp, you can count on plug-ins that deliver system powers of more than 200 hp. In that respect it all remains pretty familiar, although logically there will be more to choose with a plug than now. The 2.0 TDI is probably also back in the game, although it is still the question whether it will return here in the Netherlands. By the way, we are looking far ahead; According to current plans, the next Passat will not arrive until 2023 and that has to do with a redistribution of production, among other things. The intended Turkish factory where the Passat was to roll off the assembly line is not being built, so Volkswagen has to move to its factory in Bratislava. The current model must therefore last a little longer.