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News - Market Insight - Market Insight 2025Market Insight: VW Commercial eyes big 2026Difficult 2025 will usher in bumper 2026 for Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Australia24 Nov 2025 By TOM BAKER THE director in charge of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV) in Australia has lamented that he is “definitely not happy in terms of the sales result” in 2025 while foreshadowing that the van and ute division’s product lineup is now in place for a stronger performance in 2026.
Nathan Johnson, an experienced Volkswagen Group Australia (VGA) executive, is seven months into his freshman year as VWCV brand director, having acceded the top job in a year punctuated by stock ‘blackouts’ on key models, including the Transporter, of which a new generation model was delayed for Australia.
Speaking with GoAuto on the sidelines of the launch of the seventh-generation Transporter, which has now landed in Australia in diesel and battery-electric (BEV) formats, Mr Johnson said the vans division “had a number of challenges from supply and (having) the right product at the right time”.
To the end of October 2025, VWCV had sold 7039 vehicles in Australia year-to-date, a decrease of 30 per cent when compared to the same result last year.
Bright spots for VWCV in 2025 included the launch of the ‘halo’ ID. Buzz range of BEV passenger and cargo vans, but fully electric vehicles continue to play a niche role in the overall commercial vehicle sales picture.
Volkswagen acting general manager of corporate communications Daniel DeGasperi said the muted total sales picture reflected, in part, delayed purchases of the new Transporter which may now appear in the late 2025 or early 2026 sales figures.
“Transporter as a nameplate has one of the highest (customer) loyalties that we know of. When you have a blackout period between the old model to the new model, things start to slow down,” said Mr DeGasperi.
“(2025) was a building blocks year and a consolidation year ahead of 2026.”
Indeed, VWCV is laying the foundations for 2026 to be a bumper year. Key updates are planned for the division’s top-selling badge, the Amarok, including a headline return of a Walkinshaw-tuned flagship – plus potentially another surprise for the ute.
“We have some good injection points to help build on the Amarok story, Walkinshaw being one of them. I think there are some opportunities that we have (with Amarok) as well,” said Mr Johnson.
Fleet-focussed plug-in hybrid powertrains will arrive before the end of 2026 for the Caddy small van and the Transporter and Multivan mid-size vans, potentially with attractive pricing to assist VWCV’s position under the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES).
The Caddy small van line-up has enjoyed a small bump in its sales this year, and while it will receive a PHEV option next year, demand should also be buoyed by the reintroduction of cost-leading Runner base model variants.
Next year will also give VWCV a full year of what is predicted to be normal supply of the latest Multivan, plus the new Transporter in BEV and diesel formats with the injection of the hybrid option expected in spring.
A recent update of the Crafter large van added a range of infotainment and safety technology upgrades, while the BEV ID. Buzz will score the option of AWD for Cargo variants, plus a California camper version of the passenger van – both landing in the second half of 2026.
Mr Johnson shared with GoAuto that Australia’s adoption of the strict NVES emissions framework has given the local division a more powerful seat at the product planning table, which should see new commercial vehicle models and variants arrive sooner Down Under.
“NVES has provided us with a really strong platform to have discussions about BEVs and PHEVs specifically, where we weren’t really at the table previously as much as we believed we were,” he said.
“Now that we’re at the table, and with our relationship with the factory being so strong, we are definitely involved in the conversations earlier now, which is a credit to the team and the work that we’ve done. We need to utilise that now to be successful moving forward.”  Read more |
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