大众宣布将旗下车型生命周期缩短至五年以加快更新速度,满足消费者需求。目前大众车型生命周期为七年，缩短至五年后将可以更好的根据消费者喜好调整设计。在新车上市三年后推出改款车型，这款车只在市场上存在两年，随后新一代车型将发布。大众并没有说明大众集团品牌车型是否也遵循五年一换的做法，但如果奥迪、斯柯达、西亚特和其他品牌均遵循这一做法将有助于零部件共享，大幅降低成本。大众还将在未来四年投资70亿美元在美国开发新车和改款车，这其中包括CrossBlue概念车的量产版，这款七座SUV将于2016年上市，该车只供应美国市场，而欧版车将贴上斯柯达的车标在同一年上市。

Volkswagen announces plans to shorten model life cycle to five years

Volkswagen has disclosed its intentions to adopt a five-year model life cycle to better meet customer demand.

 

Talking to Auto Express, Volkswagen of America's vice president for marketing and strategy, Joerg Sommer, said the plan is to shorten the life cycle from seven to five years as a method to "better align with customers' buying habits.” After the first three years, a facelift will be rolled out which will live on the market for just two more years until the arrival of a new generation.

 

The report does not indicate whether the same rule will be applied on other brands within the Volkswagen Group but chances are Audi, Skoda, Seat and the rest of the family will adopt the same life cycle taking into account they all share a significant amount of parts to keep the costs down.

 

Sommer went on to say that Volkswagen will be investing no less than $7 billion in new models and facilities in United States in the next four years. One of the new products will be a production version of the CrossBlue concept, a seven-seat SUV already confirmed for a 2016 launch and according to Sommer it will be a US-only affair. However, a European version is likely planned as a more budget-oriented Skoda SUV slated to come out the same year.