VW is cutting 60% of combustion cars over the next 8 years

BERLIN — Volkwagen Group will axe 60 percent of its combustion-powered models by the end of the decade and sell fewer cars overall to concentrate on producing more profitable premium vehicles, finance chief Arno Antlitz told the Financial Times.

“The key target is not growth,” Antlitz told the FT. “We are (more focused) on quality and on margins, rather than on volume and market share.”

Antlitz said VW would reduce its range of gasoline and diesel cars, consisting of at least 100 models spread across several brands, in Europe over the next eight years.

The paper said VW’s new strategy was a sign of profound changes in the auto sector, which has attempted for decades to increase profits by selling more cars each year, even if that required heavy discounting.

Former VW Group CEO Martin Winterkorn, who resigned in the wake of a diesel-emissions cheating scandal, had made it his goal to beat Toyota and General Motors to become the world top-selling automaker by 2018.