Eleven years after the outbreak of the diesel engine emissions fraud scandal, or Dieselgate, which fully implicated the Volkswagen group, one might think that bringing back a diesel engine in the second half of 2026 for the Golf – the German brand's star car – is an extraordinary and out-of-place measure. This is because the German industrial group wanted to accelerate fully on the path of electrification to leave the ghost of emissions behind, with an ambitious roadmap that planned to fully electrify the Volkswagen brand before 2030, with the arrival of the ambitious ID product range, technological and fully electric vehicles.

Diesel vehicle registrations have bottomed out in 2025, with a market share of just 5.2% in Spain during the first six months of the year. Diesel engines have practically disappeared from the market, due to a drop in supply—the main car manufacturers are opting for conventional hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or mild hybrid engines as an alternative to diesel engines—and almost nonexistent demand.

Four former Volkswagen executives were sentenced on Monday by a German court for their role in the scandal involving the cover-up of real diesel engine emissions, known as Dieselgate case, which tarnished the carmaker's image and cost it billions of euros.