Volkswagen has suspended orders for the Golf GTE plug-in hybrid as production bottlenecks have built up a considerable lead time for new orders.
A Volkswagen UK spokesman couldn’t reveal the precise lead times for the last orders placed but confirmed that they're well under one year. The bottlenecks blamed for slow production were also not pinned down to a supply issue or fault with production, so the only solution for Volkswagen to avoid excessively long lead times was to suspend orders of the model.
A Volkswagen statement reads: “Due to bottlenecks in production and in order to not impose unreasonable waiting times on our customers for new car orders, temporarily the Golf GTE cannot be ordered. We will inform you as soon as this model is available to order again.”
The Passat GTE, with which the Golf GTE shares its powertrain, remains available to order, as do the fully electricVolkswagen e-Golf and Volkswagen e-up models.
The production problem follows Tesla’s production bottlenecks experienced with the Model 3, which failed to meet delivery targets and prompted CEO Elon Musk to announce that issues in its Gigafactory were being looked into.
Despite the Golf’s position as one of the UK’s best-selling cars, the GTE is one of its slowest-selling variants in the UK, with fewer than 2000 registered per year since the model’s introduction in 2015.
Orders for the Audi A3 e-tron plug-in hybrid are also to be suspended later in the year. Audi UK is awaiting confirmation from the plant as to the official reason for the sales hiatus.
The Golf GTE and A3 e-tron share the same powertrain, although this has not been given as the reason for the pause.
Read more
Top 10 best-selling cars in Britain
Tesla falls behind on Model 3 deliveries
Join the debate
Add your comment
I ordered a Golf GTE Advance
I ordered a Golf GTE Advance in October 2017, trading in my diesel under the scrappage scheme, told delivery would be Jan/Feb. In December they updated it to March, and this week said it 'may' be May/June. They will honour scrappage deal, but I'm now stuck with my old diesel which will need an MOT / tax again soon waiting (increasingly impatiently) for the new car I put £1000 deposit on 3 months ago... I don't buy a new car often so this is a massive deal to me. Not happy with VW who just say that I must speak to the dealer, but the dealer is powerless to do anything as not in control of build weeks!
Time to sell a good used one?
The OH has a MY17.5 Golf GTE Advance with just over 2000 miles on the clock. Time to sell it as surely used demand will go up?! She likes it, but dreams of a Tesla!
Can just imagine now the
Can just imagine now the production line - rushing through haphazardly attaching things to try and meet orders and get the cars out quick enough. Can’t imagine them being bolted together with care and precision