Historically, this has simply been a necessity for Volkswagen. The Volkswagen factory was build in the 30ies in a thinly populated area that was mainly chosen because it was next to the Mittelland canal. An entire city (Wolfsburg) was founded for the workers. The city's entire infrastructure had to be built from scratch [0], and of course this included farms and meat processing plants.
[0] https://img.sparknews.funkemedien.de/214521413/214521413_152...
Not-so-fun fact: this is what worries me the most about the current political tendencies across the Western world. Historically, food insecurity has been the most common factor between regime changes, revolutions and other uprisings - and now we have been through about five years of rampant inflation (either direct or "hidden" behind shrink/skimpflation) with wage raises not even coming close to matching it, and many even centrist politicians don't care.
Also the article is a bit imprecise on the part of swapping it for a vegan alternative in the headquarters: that was only one of several canteens in the headquarters (Volkswagen Markenhaus).
I somewhat did like the VW Currywurst the one time I was in Wolfsburg/Autostadt. But it was different from home - the Ruhr area. Sometimes we forget that even something simple as the Currywurst has regional differences. And then there is Berlin.
[0] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/currywurst-neuer-ketc...
Branding is one of a few valuable assets those car companies have left.
