The Business Car Files
Above: Volkswagen aims to improve EV affordability and support fleet customers as it navigates rising plug-in hybrid tax rates and the shift to electrification.
EVs, and that manufacturers need to play a part in this. He says: “We’ve launched a new campaign this quarter called ‘Same spirit, different energy’ which is about trying to normalise that move to EVs, trying to talk about it in language that customers understand, and that will apply equally to fleet customers as it will to retail customers. “We try to talk to retail customers around EV TCO, and I think end-user [fleet] drivers will pick up on that piece. There’s the company car tax benefit that you get there, but people through their day-to-day lives are looking at becoming more environmentally friendly.” Shepherd adds that work to improve the affordability of EVs could also have an impact.
He says: “We’ve got to work hard as well on the prices of those cars to make it reachable to people at all levels, whether they be corporate drivers, salary sacrifice, or retail drivers, so [VW’s new entry-level EV] the ID.2 will be a critical part of that. “We’re bringing out a new ID Pure Match trim for ID.3 that will start at about £32,000 – that will help in terms of improving the affordability and the reach of those cars.”
Collaboration between car manufacturers is becoming increasingly common with the move to electrification, and earlier this year Ford launched the Explorer, a model using Volkswagen’s electric architecture, as part of a deal between the two companies which has also seen Volkswagen introduce Ford-based commercial vehicles. But Shepherd is unconcerned about Volkswagen being able to differentiate its products. He says: “We’ve been sharing technology across the [Volkswagen Group] platforms for years, and the brands work and stand alone and take their products to market on a fairly common group platform, and I don’t particularly see that that’s any different. We work on a design, we work on making them Volkswagens.
“[Volkswagen Passenger Cars CEO] Thomas Schafer has made it really clear that we need to get back to those sort of iconic designs. We see that with the ID.2all concept [and] the ID. GTI, about what’s coming in the future, making those cars unmistakeably Volkswagen.
“Volkswagen is committed to leading the way in electrification, not just by bringing innovative EVs to market but by making them more affordable and appealing to all customers.”
“We know we need to be competitive, but we want to be competitive and continue to build on our brand.” Shepherd says that Volkswagen can also differentiate itself based on the efforts of its fleet team. He says: “It’s about the service to corporate customers and leasing companies as well, about how we go out and talk to them, try and listen to them, try and work with them to really understand what they want, and how we can support them
in getting there, particularly through their own sustainability strategies.
“That’s really, really important to me [and] to the team, in terms of really understanding that customer position, the challenges that they are having perhaps with their drivers in switching to EVs, and how we can help them through that.”
Shepherd says that Volkswagen is mindful of recent problems faced by the fleet industry. He says: “I think the leasing industry has had a bit of a challenge with the [EV] RV drops over the last 18 months. I think the signs are we’re hopefully getting to a stage now where that is normalising and flattening out. “We run a number of leasing forums where we talk to them about the worries, the challenges that they’ve got – that’s probably the number one worry on their agenda.
“So, we need to work hard with them in terms of making sure that they’ve got confidence in our products, they understand where we want to go with the brand in terms of our future models, and work with them through that situation.”
Above: Volkswagen’s ID.2all is designed to make EVs more affordable,
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