Volkswagen Group is terminating its motorsport activities at its namesake car division and reassigning employees to work on its growing line of electric vehicles.
The motorsport unit, employing 169 people, will be folded into the parent company in the coming months, VW said Tuesday.
The division is already working on a prototype electric race car called the IDR and will now help develop the brand's growing range of electric models.
"The deep technical expertise of the motorsport employees and the know-how gained from the IDR project will remain with the company and will help us put further efficient models from the ID family on the road," VW development chief Frank Welsch said.
The VW brand's motorsport activities lacked the allure of more prominent efforts by sibling brands Porsche and Audi, which included dominance of the Le Mans endurance sports-car race for more than a decade.
But VW built a loyal fan base in rally sports, scoring three wins at the prestigious Dakar Rally, including the first-ever victory for a woman by Jutta Kleinschmidt in 2001.
VW launched the IDR about two years ago. The car set records on the Pikes Peak mountain road in the U.S., the prestigious Nuerburgring track in Germany and at Tianmen Mountain in China.
