The same conclusions would likely be reached if the analysis were performed on U.S. data, with even the classic market leading pickups failing miserably over the last few months. The report of the U.S. and EU kill-off of the Robust program comes from Automobilwoche, which also notes that the €233 million investment in the company's Pacheco, Buenos Aires plant in Argentina and continuing demand mean the truck will still be built there, starting in 2009.
Canceling the Robust program means there are 700 jobs in limbo at the 13,000-worker Hanover plant in Germany. VW is looking for other projects to take up the slack left by the Robust, but so far nothing has been announced.
VW Robust Pickup spy shots
Reader Comments
Sun Jul 6 2008 8:06 AM
Jim says
Did someone at VW finally wake up and smell the coffee? I've no insight regarding Europe but in the US selling a VW badged pick up would have been, hmm, challenging. The question is why did VW even think they could sell a pickup? Nissan is giving up and will simply rebadge the Dodge Ram. Toyota, despite its hugely popular Tacoma has struggled in the full size market.
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