WOLFSBURG (dpa-AFX) - The car business is weakening, but VW was able to set another record for one product in 2024: The VW currywurst sold better than ever before. 8.552 million units were sold in canteens and supermarkets in 2024, as the Works Council announced in a post on the intranet, which was made available to Deutsche Presse-Agentur. This was a good 200,000 more than in the previous record year of 2023, a Group spokeswoman confirmed.
"With over 8 million Volkswagen Original Currywurst sausages sold, we are celebrating a new sales record," wrote Chief Human Resources Officer Gunnar Kilian on LinkedIn.
Almost as many sausages as cars
This means the Group sold almost as many sausages as cars. In contrast to sausages, vehicle sales shrank by 2.3 percent in 2024 to 9.03 million models across all Group brands. For the core VW brand, the sausage is even by far the best-selling product. In 2024, the 8.5 million sausages were offset by around 5.2 million cars and vans with the VW logo.
The company attributes the record to new variants such as the hot dog sausage launched in 2021, which sold almost 2.18 million units last year. The classic currywurst sold 6.317 million units. This compares to seven million in 2019 and 6.5 million in the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. Further variants are to follow, Kilian announced. "Our next Currywurst coup is already in the works!"
Currywurst ban called former Chancellor Schröder to the scene
The banishment of the classic dish from a VW canteen in Wolfsburg caused a nationwide stir in 2021. In particular, the reaction of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder about the "energy bar of the skilled worker in production" fueled a debate about meat consumption in companies at that time. In 2023, VW lifted the currywurst ban in the canteen in question. The meat product had always remained on offer in the other more than 30 canteens and kiosks in the plant.
The VW currywurst was launched in 1973. In Lower Saxony, it is also available in many supermarkets. It is produced in the butchery of the company's own Volkswagen Service Factory. VW even gave it its own part number: 199 398 500 A./fjo/DP/mis