According to sales data from JATO and Dataforce, the T-Roc is Volkswagen's best-selling vehicle in Europe for the first half of 2023. It even clinched the title of Europe's top-selling car for the month of July. This year, the compact crossover has significantly outperformed the once-leading Golf, which has surprisingly dropped to near the end of the top 10 list.
Given this, it's not surprising that Volkswagen is less than pleased about having to temporarily stop T-Roc production at its Autoeuropa facility in Setubal, Portugal. Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reports that the pause is due to a lack of engine components, citing an internal memo sent to the plant's 5,000 employees. The production suspension, affecting both the standard and convertible versions of the T-Roc, is slated to last for several weeks and will commence sometime in the first half of September.
2022 Volkswagen T-Roc R
Last year, Volkswagen produced 231,100 units of the T-Roc and is currently testing its second-generation model. The company has publicly stated that the upcoming T-Roc will be one of its final new vehicles to feature combustion engines, along with the newly released Passat. The forthcoming Tiguan and the seven-seat Tayron, to be introduced later, will also fall into this category.
DPA speculates that the parts shortage may impact other models as well. Flooding in Slovenia is said to have disrupted a supplier responsible for T-Roc's engine components. Because the T-Roc shares its MQB platform with several other vehicles in the VW Group lineup, there is a genuine concern that other models could experience similar production issues.
Sources: Automotive News Europe, Dataforce, JATO
