Report: Volkswagen may be resorting to five-year product cycles to improve sales

Bloomberg reports that Volkswagen of America is in the works with considering shorter product life cycles for their models. Currently most automobile manufacturers produce a certain generation of car for anywhere between six to nine years–though anything more than seven or eight years is stretching it.

That said, to keep the market fresh and competition active, Volkswagen may be shortening their lifespans to about five years instead of the aforementioned average.

The news outlet recently spoke with Volkswagen of America’s CEO, Michael Horn.

“We’re working to shorten the life cycle of the products to bring more new features and design elements, in terms of facelifts, to the market quicker,” said Horn, also noting that the plan is to help improve sales.

Despite these words from Horn himself, the plan has yet to be approved from Volkswagen’s executives higher up. Should the plan get the green light, implementation isn’t expected to occur until 2017.

Source: Bloomberg