Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer Explains Return of Real Buttons

Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer is making no attempt to soften the message: “It was clear we were losing our core.”

At a VW event in Hamburg, he told TopGear.com what the company has taken from the ID. range and from the undeniably poor choice to remove physical controls from the Mk8 Golf.

“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.”

Thomas Schäfer’s new Volkswagen design approach

Since taking charge of VW in mid-2022, Schäfer says Volkswagen has completely reconsidered its approach to vehicle design. In the past, the company would compile an extensive list of requirements and features, yet customers did not feel at ease using the finished car. The emphasis is now on the people using it: who the vehicle is intended for, and who will be behind the wheel.

The next task is to create appealing cars with a recognisable family appearance that once again conveys quality, an attribute missing from the plastic-heavy ID. models.

Schäfer says the design team, headed by Andreas Mindt, followed three rules: “stable, likeable, and secret sauce.”

What does that mean?

“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.”

Volkswagen brings back real buttons in the ID. Polo

The interior of the new ID. Polo suggests VW is moving in the right direction. A large central touchscreen remains, but the touch-sensitive rubbish on the steering wheel has been replaced with proper buttons. Heating is operated using toggles, while there is also a volume control. Remarkably, it even has four – yes, four – electric window switches. Miracles evidently do happen.

TG asked Thomas Schäfer why the previous management had made so many interior errors that damaged the brand’s reputation. Was R&D spread too thin by Dieselgate, or was it swept up in the EV rush? He does not agree with either suggestion.

“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.”

Listening to Volkswagen customers

Volkswagen’s head of technical development, 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].”

That hardly sounds like a ringing endorsement of former CEO Herbert Diess. Returning to the current boss, Schäfer says VW is now placing much greater weight on customer research.

“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 accepts that Volkswagen is becoming better at paying attention: to customer feedback, reviews and buyers themselves. It appears that people do not, after all, want to travel around in enormous iPhones, which should be encouraging for the Golf Mk9...