Volkswagen boss: “proper door handles and buttons are a non-negotiable for me”

“It was clear we were losing our core.” Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer is not mincing his words.

“VW has always been about cars that became part of people’s lives: reliable, easy to understand. Yes, geopolitics, supply chains and competition [had an effect], but we also had to change our own mindset.”

Speaking at a VW event in Hamburg, he’s explaining to TopGear.com what Volkswagen has learned from its ID. models – and its downright bad decision to ditch buttons in the Mk8 Golf.

Schäfer, who became VW top dog in mid-2022, says the company has totally reapproached how it designs cars. “In the ‘old’ days we made a long list of requirements and features, but people didn’t feel comfortable using [the end product]. Now we think about people. Who is the car for? Who is driving it?”

Next job: sketch attractive cars with a family look that projects quality once again – something lacking from the plasticky IDs.

Schäfer explains his design team, lead by Andreas Mindt, stuck to three principles: “stable, likeable, and secret sauce.”

Come again?

“A VW should have a friendly face. A door handle must be intuitive – easy to use when you arrive at the car with hands full of shopping. And we will bring back real buttons and real names, for cars you can understand immediately.”

You’ve seen inside the new ID. Polo: it’s going in the right direction. Yes, there’s a big touchscreen in the middle. But proper buttons replace touch-sensitive garbage on the steering wheel. There are toggles to work the heating. A volume knob. Heck, you even get four – yes, four – electric window switches! Wonders shall never cease.

TG asked Thomas Schäfer why he thought the previous regime had made so many reputation-staining interior cock-ups. R&D stretched too thin by Dieselgate? EV go-fever? He disagrees…

“There was a spirit of iPhone-ish kind of design and utilisation that you could see coming through in many companies," he said. "It was a little bit difficult to get the designers off that idea.

“I said, ‘listen, there's two things that are absolutely non-negotiable for me: door handles and buttons'. I don't understand why anybody would have [touch-sensitive] sliders.”

Volkswagen’s technical development boss Kai Grünitz adds: “I've worked for Volkswagen for roughly 30 years now. Every Volkswagen has been made for the board, and especially for the CEO. Luckily Piech and [Martin] Winterkorn had a feeling for what the customer wanted.

“Changing the CEO means that everyone follows the new one. And if he says, 'hey, we need sliders...’ they argued a little bit, but they'd style [it].”

Not the greatest endorsement for erstwhile CEO Herbert Diess then, we detect. Back to current boss Schäfer.

“We are doing customer clinics a lot, asking ‘what do we need a button for?’ We are testing with data, using cameras inside the car to see what the customer uses and where they are looking.”

Schäfer also agrees Volkswagen is learning to listen more – to feedback, to reviews, to customers. Turns out we don’t want to drive around in giant iPhones after all – which bodes well for the Golf Mk9...