Volkswagen Phaeton Production to Cease by the end of March 2016

Kuala Lumpur: Volkswagen has recently announced that it will stop operations at its Dresden plant in Germany, by the end of March 2016. With the closure of the Dresden plant, the production of Volkswagen Phaeton luxury sedan will also come to an end as the Dresden plant is the only place that produces VW Phaeton. When the VW sales declined in UK and US due to the dieselgate scandal, the German automaker suggested that it would limit its model variants as an attempt to save money. Recently, it was also reported that the Volkswagen could sell some of its own brands like Bentley, Lamborghini, Ducati, should it defaults to pay the 20 billion euro loan which it secured from a total of 13 different financial institutions throughout Europe, in order to finance the troubling situation after the dieselgate scandal.

The Phaeton was introduced in 2002 in an attempt to compete in the lucrative market for luxury sedans, which was largely dominated by BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class but the luxury sedan failed to gain some traction in its fourteen-year production run. The luxury sedan from Volkswagen has been costlier in comparison to its competitors.

The Dresden plant in Germany is the VW's smallest production plant in the country. The plant has a total of five hundred employees among which three hundred are dedicated for the production of Volkswagen Phaeton. Luckily, the employees of VW's Dresden plant in Germany are not going to lose their jobs because the automaker will transfer them to its Zwickau plant.

With the Volkswagen Phaeton production coming to an end, next year, the German automaker is rumored to launch a replacement model by the year 2020.

In Malaysia, VW Phaeton was sold at a price of RM639K, after a special discount. The luxury sedan was also put on display at the F.A Wagen dealership in 2014 with the price tag of RM838,888. The Phaeton sold in Malaysia was powered by a 4.2-liter non-FSI V8 engine which was capable of producing the maximum power of 335 PS at 6,500 rpm along with peak torque of 430Nm at 3,500 rpm. The luxury sedan was capable of making its century sprint in just 6.9 seconds. The luxury sedan is still used to chauffeur the current MD of Volkswagen Group Malaysia, Mr. Armin Keller.

Also Read: VW Denies Compensation to European Owners of Cars Affected from 'Dieselgate' – Report