Volkswagen cancels Arteon sedan a year early

The Volkswagen Arteon sedan won’t be back for a 2024 model year. Production ended quietly at the end of 2023, a year earlier than planned. 

Last June, VW CEO Thomas Schäfer addressed an earnings improvement plan to its unions without cutting jobs or wages. One of the cost-saving strategies was cutting niche models such as the Arteon.

“We will focus on a small number of—though genuine—Volkswagen core models,” Schäfer said at the time. “This will reduce complexity and deliver higher profits.”

At the time, Volkswagen confirmed a 2024 Arteon. By late August, it was no longer included in the brand’s plans for the 2024 model year. 

The Arteon had been built in the port city of Edmen, Germany. That plant has been retooling to produce electric vehicles, starting with the ID.4 crossover and the ID.7 sedan. Since 2022, Volkswagen has been manufacturing the ID.4 for the North American market in its Chattanooga Tennessee Assembly Plant. 

The 2025 VW ID.7 electric sedan will replace the Arteon in the brand’s shrinking sedan lineup, but production will remain in Emden unless demand dictates a North American-based build. 

The Arteon full-size sedan arrived in the U.S. in 2019. The low-selling but luxury-leaning sedan eventually replaced the midsize Passat that had its last run in 2022. 

The Arteon’s fastback shape and grand touring ambitions caught eyes but limited practicality in the rear seats, though its unusual hatch provided plenty of cargo space. With a price hovering around $45,000, though, it and its 300-hp turbo-4 were a tough sell over an Audi sedan. 

The Arteon joins other discontinued cars that won’t be back for 2024, including the full-size Chrysler 300 sedan, the Dodge Challenger and Charger siblings, the Kia Stinger, and the Nissan Maxima.