VW is a brand carrying scale but facing real structural headwinds: 3rd for sales volume (421,300), business momentum defined by restructuring, and 10th in our Koto brand rankings. It’s a case of commercial scale outrunning brand clarity: a genuinely large, established base, but a weak brand identity score – and with massive layoffs recently announced, a business in real trouble.
If we were VW, our focus would be conviction and distinction. Our Koto brand ranking highlights a lack of ownable positioning and verbal identity. VW has the raw material for a compelling EV brand – it’s got mass-market accessibility, deep engineering credibility, and (as the report notes elsewhere) campaigns that still successfully pull at Golf-era heartstrings – but the near disastrous ID range hasn't yet translated that equity into a distinct EV point of view. With ICE and hybrid still accounting for over 80% of sales, VW's electric identity is still, in effect, a sub-plot to its combustion-era one.
The VW name = "The People's Car" – and remains a powerful piece of brand equity, built on genuine democratic access rather than marketing language. Time will tell if that promise gets renewed for the EV era, or quietly retired while the business focuses on restructuring.
