I think the GTE is a logical replacement for the diesel. It gets much better mileage equivalent for the first 70? km in city driving and past that it goes into a hybrid mode, which is roughly the same as diesel in efficiency and a lot more entertaining than an average hybrid due to a 6spd DSG.
In Germany (its main market), there is little incentive to get plug-in hybrids. Only "pure" EVs (no range extenders, hybrids) are except from the annual vehicle tax. There is a new EV purchase rebate, but it is handled thru the manufacturers and dealers, so the savings are not always clearly passed to the customer.
Germany continues to subsidise diesel fuel more than its neighbours. The gap is usually 12-14 cents (18-24 cents $C).
So it's expensive to buy, hydro is expensive (we pay a 50% surcharge for renewables) if you can find a charge point- most cars park on the street, if you end up needing to fill up with gasoline it's expensive, and the EV range is limited during the cold months of the year. All this on a car that is supposed to rack up a lot of kms. Not a ton of financial incentive here.
Neighbouring countries have more favourable tax schemes, but big cars like the Passat Variant are less popular there.
You don't think someone would also use a Passat GTE to commute?
In Germany, people do. But again, for the reasons above....why not just the regular 2.0 TDI ? The price gap is 13 k€.
I do find it amusing that wagons are such a novelty, although I can sort of understand (yesterday I saw my first Mazda3 sedan in an entire year; no kidding). Mazda6 wagon ? Audi S4 avant ? Yawn. All in the company car park
