7 ms·

Volkswagen planning to cut up to 100.000 jobs globally

37 points by cbg0 3mo ago

toomuchtodo 3mo ago
Weak that they’re not partnering with CATL or Panasonic to build stationary storage with excess manufacturing capacity.
- verdverm 3mo ago
  They are switching some lines to building military vehicles aiui
  - alephnerd 3mo ago
    > switching some lines to building military It got vetoed by Qatar (their SWF owns 17% of all voting shares in Volkswagen) because that would have meant working with Israeli companies [0] despite Germany being dependent on the Israeli Arrow system [1] to counter Russian systems. Now that factory (Osnabrueck) is one of the factories on the chopping block. And this is why Volkswagen is going to be a slow moving train crash - Lower Saxony, the Qatari royal family, the Pötsch/Porsche family, and IG Metall are not aligned. [0] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-10/qatar-blocks-defense-joint-venture-between-vw-and-israeli-firm https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-10/qatar-blo... [1] - https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/germany-deploys-arrow-air-defence-counter-russian-missile-threat-2025-12-03/ https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/germany-d...
    - jacooper 3mo ago
      Bohoo, can't build weapons for genociders, poor me! What a shitty management that can't find any solutions other than building weapons for war criminals.
      - alephnerd 3mo ago
        > What a shitty management that can't find any solutions other than building weapons for war criminals No one else wants the factory nor the workers other than Rafael's JV with the German government. Now they are part of the 100,000 being laid off. Germany (and Romania) will still use the Iron Dome and other Israeli systems, but now it'll be "Made in India" [0], so the only people impacted were VW employees in Osnabrueck who are now laid off. [0] - https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/byaub5cmfl https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/byaub5cmfl
        jacooper 3mo ago
        Again, Bohoo, shitty management can't find another solution somehow.
- alephnerd 3mo ago
  > CATL Battery technology and chemistry is export controlled by China [0], which has hurt European attempts at doing what you mentioned [1]. > Panasonic They have chosen to concentrate on America instead [2] [0] - https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/10/prc-announces-new-export-controls-on-rare-earth-and-battery-materials-and-technology https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/10/... [1] - https://merics.org/en/comment/chinese-restrictions-threaten-europes-hopes-absorbing-battery-tech https://merics.org/en/comment/chinese-restrictions-threaten-... [2] - https://www.reuters.com/technology/panasonic-localise-its-us-data-centre-battery-production-ceo-says-2026-06-30/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/panasonic-localise-its-us...
  - toomuchtodo 3mo ago
    CATL is building one of the largest battery manufacturing facilities in Europe in Spain. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-catl-breaks-ground-huge-spanish-battery-plant-bringing-its-own-workers-2025-11-26/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-catl-breaks-groun... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46061492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46061492 (“CATL's Spain plant will likely be one of Europe's largest LFP battery production hubs at ~50GWh of production capacity, employing ~4k workers with an investment of ~€4.1B.”)
    - alephnerd 3mo ago
      China views Spain as a better strategic partner [0] than Germany. China and Spain signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2021 [1] and Spain is lobbying on behalf of China against the "Made in EU" act [2]. On the other hand, Germany is backing EU quotas and origination requirements to push back against Chinese overproduction [3]. Of course, China and Germany have fallen out due to Ukraine [4] as well as China's negative perception about the EU as an institution [5]. [0] - https://cn.chinadiplomacy.org.cn/2026-06/19/content_118558534.shtml https://cn.chinadiplomacy.org.cn/2026-06/19/content_11855853... [1] - https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/gjhdq_665435/3265_665445/3356_664772/ https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/gjhdq_665435/3265_665445/3356_6... [2] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-16/china-lobbies-spain-to-sink-eu-plans-to-boost-its-companies https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-16/china-lob... [3] - https://www.ft.com/content/06b7fe04-25f7-445b-824a-135ae73596a5?syn-25a6b1a6=1 https://www.ft.com/content/06b7fe04-25f7-445b-824a-135ae7359... [4] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/germany-closer-us-than-china-despite-recent-tensions-foreign-minister-says-2026-02-02/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/germany-closer-us-than-c... [5] - https://fddi.fudan.edu.cn/_t2515/57/f8/c21257a743416/page.htm https://fddi.fudan.edu.cn/_t2515/57/f8/c21257a743416/page.ht...
shaism 3mo ago
It is unfortunate for the employees but it is necessary, and hopefully also a wake up call for other German companies and the government. It’s time for leaner structures, smaller teams, faster decisions, and shorter development cycles. Volkswagen, like no other company, symbolizes the lethargy of the German economy and business environment. Hopefully, the seven years with barely any economic growth will end soon.
- TacticalCoder 3mo ago
  > Volkswagen, like no other company, symbolizes the lethargy of the German economy and business environment A car development cycle is/was seven years in Germany. And that was totally fine. When the "Golf 7" comes up, the "Golf 8" doesn't come out only 2 years after. What happened is the EU (and Germany in particular) left only two development cycles to the biggest industry in Germany (and hence the biggest industry in Europe) to entirely change. For the EU said: "In 14 years you're forbidden to sell a single brand new ICE car in the EU" (of course they recently changed that tune, but too little, too late, the damage is done). But that's not all: not happy to drown the german car industry, they decided that the corpse wasn't drowning quickly enough and Germany decided to shut down all their nuclear reactors (I think they recently reversed their stance on that too) and become depending on Russia as a major energy source (which the US warned Europe / Germany to not do). Of course the shit hit the fan: Russia attacked Ukraine and everything turned to shit. And now it's estimated German car makers pay their energy price 7x more than was chinese car makers pay their energy. So, no, it's not all "the lethargy of German economy and business". Germany was (and to some extent still is) producing incredibly fine driving machines: not just VW but Audi, Porsche, BMW and Mercedes. And those cars did what was asked of cars: drive very finely. It's eurocrats/bureaucrats and german politicians who killed the german car industry. P.S: I've got nothing against EVs... But don't be an ideological idiot about it: don't kill your main industry while handing the keys of the kingdown to China. The shift was way too quick. The EU should have been way more cautious and shouldn't have stupidly closed so many nuclear plants (to moreover start burning more coal again).
  - rjsw 3mo ago
    The EU didn't close any nuclear plants, that was just Germany.
tangenter 3mo ago
VW is a massive casualty, but the future of automotive is currently a cutthroat war between BYD and Tesla. Everyone else is, at best, a second tier competitor. Auto industry/dealerships for trad cars is not looking good.
- LarsDu88 3mo ago
  You're confusing Tesla for like 10 other Chinese brands. Tesla too is falling behind, particularly when it comes to price. BYD may very well be pulling ahead on battery tech and vertical integration right now. In a few years Tesla's primary moat will be political
  - onlypassingthru 3mo ago
    'BYD has pulled ahead on battery tech and vertical integration right now.' - FTFY
- AlotOfReading 3mo ago
  I don't see how Tesla is a serious competitor in that matchup. Their sales have been declining for two years, and Chinese OEMs are clearly on the path to complete dominance in most foreign markets. In the US market, I think Hyundai (and to a much lesser extent Kia) is probably the most interesting OEM. EV sales that aren't declining, the highest American-made percentage vehicles (relevant given recent policy changes), a manufacturing partnership with Waymo, widespread consumer awareness, and relatively lower prices than their competitors. It'd be nice if they provided a better repair situation than Tesla, but that's the current industry I guess.
  - the_real_cher 3mo ago
    2027 is going to change this sitnificantly. Toyota is releasing a full EV highlander, Honda is releasing the 0 series, Kia has some new EVs coming out. Next year is going to be a huge EV shift. Tesla is screwed.
    - 3mo ago
12958715 3mo ago
People have no money for cars. Maybe boomers whose health insurance you subsidize and whose overpriced apartments you rent can still afford one. Everyone else struggles with health insurance up more than 100% in 10 years, Döner up 100% in 6 years, electricity costs etc. But we feel good about the "rules based international order", which only the EU follows right now, dictated by public servants with inflation-indexed pensions.
- lifestyleguru 3mo ago
  I don't think cars have ever been so unexciting. As long as regulations were improving security it was fine, but in recent years they only push for more control and surveillance. Still despite the byzantine regulations they failed to address e.g. the obnoxious blinding headlights. Then yeah, rich boomers from rich EU countries are leaving scorched earth to everyone except their immediate family.
- a34729t 3mo ago
  Americans and Chinese have money for cars. Europeans, less so.
  - throwaway270925 3mo ago
    Americans dont have the money either, they just need that car anyway because there are no other options in most of the US.
- wolvoleo 3mo ago
  I'm really happy not having a car anymore though. It gives me a lot of freedom. When I had a car I had to think about when to get back to it because of parking fees. To get it fixed/maintained. To have to return to the place I left it (I often walk across town). I couldn't have a drink before going back home. There were a few pluses like bringing big stuff and going outside of the city but I rarely do those things.
_s_a_m_ 3mo ago
A German economist explained on Insta that the main reason they are doing this is because Moody's making politics and reduced VWs rating, and VW is one of the largest credit holders in Europe and now they have been forced to act and do something about this unplanned rating change which will make loans expensive for them, without actually being a concrete automotive related issue in the first place.
- alephnerd 3mo ago
  > because Moody's making politics and reduced VWs rating... > without actually being a concrete automotive related issue in the first place... VW's market share in China (it's largest market) has collapsed - in 20 years it went from around 20% of all cars in China to 10% and current deliveries this year in China have fallen by 36%. This is a huge fall for a company whose Jetta was literally China's Model T. VW Group has been dependent on China, much of Europe, and the US for almost 2 decades. It lost the American market in the 2010s when Diesel-gate pushed it's American ICP to Toyota, Nissan, and Tesla and it lost it's Chinese marketshare when China began the NEV policy back in the 2010s. And European car sales haven't recovered to pre-COVID amounts. It isn't entirely an automotive issue, but it is very much a management issue. And nothing can be done about it - voting share is split between Lower Saxony, the Qatari royal family (17% voting share), the Porsche family, and IG Metall. Given the degree of state ownership in VW, it'll make GM's collapse look like a cakewalk.
  - jshier 3mo ago
    Wasn't the China collapse entirely predictable based on the rise of China's domestic auto industry? Why would anyone buy a Jetta when you can get a BYD?
    - alephnerd 3mo ago
      The BYD EV boom only began in earnest in 2020 when the Han EV was released and the NEV was clubbed with local level subsidizes. The pieces were there but didn't catalyze until then.
robotnikman 3mo ago
Chinese car brands are eating the lunch of all the European automakers. They will need to do something to reverse the tide before its too late.
- pineaux 3mo ago
  They can just tariff the shit out of the Chinese cars. That will work great.
dieselgate 3mo ago
For some perspective VW Group has around 680k employees per wikipedia [0]. Doubling the estimate from 50k to 100k is pretty wild, though I had read last week it was 100k on the tdi-club forum thread "What's left for Volkswagen?" [1] [0] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group [1] https://forums.tdiclub.com/index.php?threads/what%E2%80%99s-left-for-volkswagen.547219/ https://forums.tdiclub.com/index.php?threads/what%E2%80%99s-...
huntoa 3mo ago
I think with the advent of cheap Chinese electric cars (new BYD for 7-9k€ in China) VW will die a slow death, slowed down by tariffs, tax-paid stimulation programs and bailouts from Germany. They can't compete on price or quality. I hate that tax money is wasted for this garbage company. Germany and the ECB has been financing VW group by buying their bonds. VW group has hundreds of billions of debt. German Central Bank president recently said (translated): "[It is] currently in the midst of a restructuring process. However, I also see opportunities — for instance, in the defense industry." Profit margin Volkswagen: 2.21% Profit Margin Toyota: 7.59% When I compared ICE compact cars some years ago, the Audi A1 (Volkswagen Group) was the only German contender with respect to quality, repair costs, failure statistics, etc. But it lost out to a Toyota, because the Audi was more expensive. Michael Burry's march BYD analysis was interesting. It said this (and much more): "BYD is potentially the lowest-cost producer of vehicles in the world thanks to its vertically integrated model at scale. BYD controls its supply chains and saves margin at every step. It makes its chips, batteries, bodies, motors, etc. [...] Factories are being built in Thailand, Brazil, Hungary, and Turkey. Europe put a 17% tariff on BYD cars [...]. Once local production is in gear, the tariff will disappear - a major future competitive advantage in Europe given BYD’s low cost advantage. [...] massive overseas spend [...] BYD has ~29% more revenue than Tesla and ~1/12th the market cap."

37 points by cbg0 3mo ago

toomuchtodo 3mo ago

Weak that they’re not partnering with CATL or Panasonic to build stationary storage with excess manufacturing capacity.

verdverm 3mo ago
They are switching some lines to building military vehicles aiui
- alephnerd 3mo ago
  > switching some lines to building military It got vetoed by Qatar (their SWF owns 17% of all voting shares in Volkswagen) because that would have meant working with Israeli companies [0] despite Germany being dependent on the Israeli Arrow system [1] to counter Russian systems. Now that factory (Osnabrueck) is one of the factories on the chopping block. And this is why Volkswagen is going to be a slow moving train crash - Lower Saxony, the Qatari royal family, the Pötsch/Porsche family, and IG Metall are not aligned. [0] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-10/qatar-blocks-defense-joint-venture-between-vw-and-israeli-firm https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-10/qatar-blo... [1] - https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/germany-deploys-arrow-air-defence-counter-russian-missile-threat-2025-12-03/ https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/germany-d...
  - jacooper 3mo ago
    Bohoo, can't build weapons for genociders, poor me! What a shitty management that can't find any solutions other than building weapons for war criminals.
    - alephnerd 3mo ago
      > What a shitty management that can't find any solutions other than building weapons for war criminals No one else wants the factory nor the workers other than Rafael's JV with the German government. Now they are part of the 100,000 being laid off. Germany (and Romania) will still use the Iron Dome and other Israeli systems, but now it'll be "Made in India" [0], so the only people impacted were VW employees in Osnabrueck who are now laid off. [0] - https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/byaub5cmfl https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/byaub5cmfl
      - jacooper 3mo ago
        Again, Bohoo, shitty management can't find another solution somehow.
alephnerd 3mo ago
> CATL Battery technology and chemistry is export controlled by China [0], which has hurt European attempts at doing what you mentioned [1]. > Panasonic They have chosen to concentrate on America instead [2] [0] - https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/10/prc-announces-new-export-controls-on-rare-earth-and-battery-materials-and-technology https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/10/... [1] - https://merics.org/en/comment/chinese-restrictions-threaten-europes-hopes-absorbing-battery-tech https://merics.org/en/comment/chinese-restrictions-threaten-... [2] - https://www.reuters.com/technology/panasonic-localise-its-us-data-centre-battery-production-ceo-says-2026-06-30/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/panasonic-localise-its-us...
- toomuchtodo 3mo ago
  CATL is building one of the largest battery manufacturing facilities in Europe in Spain. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-catl-breaks-ground-huge-spanish-battery-plant-bringing-its-own-workers-2025-11-26/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-catl-breaks-groun... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46061492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46061492 (“CATL's Spain plant will likely be one of Europe's largest LFP battery production hubs at ~50GWh of production capacity, employing ~4k workers with an investment of ~€4.1B.”)
  - alephnerd 3mo ago
    China views Spain as a better strategic partner [0] than Germany. China and Spain signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2021 [1] and Spain is lobbying on behalf of China against the "Made in EU" act [2]. On the other hand, Germany is backing EU quotas and origination requirements to push back against Chinese overproduction [3]. Of course, China and Germany have fallen out due to Ukraine [4] as well as China's negative perception about the EU as an institution [5]. [0] - https://cn.chinadiplomacy.org.cn/2026-06/19/content_118558534.shtml https://cn.chinadiplomacy.org.cn/2026-06/19/content_11855853... [1] - https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/gjhdq_665435/3265_665445/3356_664772/ https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/gjhdq_665435/3265_665445/3356_6... [2] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-16/china-lobbies-spain-to-sink-eu-plans-to-boost-its-companies https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-16/china-lob... [3] - https://www.ft.com/content/06b7fe04-25f7-445b-824a-135ae73596a5?syn-25a6b1a6=1 https://www.ft.com/content/06b7fe04-25f7-445b-824a-135ae7359... [4] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/germany-closer-us-than-china-despite-recent-tensions-foreign-minister-says-2026-02-02/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/germany-closer-us-than-c... [5] - https://fddi.fudan.edu.cn/_t2515/57/f8/c21257a743416/page.htm https://fddi.fudan.edu.cn/_t2515/57/f8/c21257a743416/page.ht...

shaism 3mo ago

It is unfortunate for the employees but it is necessary, and hopefully also a wake up call for other German companies and the government. It’s time for leaner structures, smaller teams, faster decisions, and shorter development cycles. Volkswagen, like no other company, symbolizes the lethargy of the German economy and business environment. Hopefully, the seven years with barely any economic growth will end soon.

TacticalCoder 3mo ago
> Volkswagen, like no other company, symbolizes the lethargy of the German economy and business environment A car development cycle is/was seven years in Germany. And that was totally fine. When the "Golf 7" comes up, the "Golf 8" doesn't come out only 2 years after. What happened is the EU (and Germany in particular) left only two development cycles to the biggest industry in Germany (and hence the biggest industry in Europe) to entirely change. For the EU said: "In 14 years you're forbidden to sell a single brand new ICE car in the EU" (of course they recently changed that tune, but too little, too late, the damage is done). But that's not all: not happy to drown the german car industry, they decided that the corpse wasn't drowning quickly enough and Germany decided to shut down all their nuclear reactors (I think they recently reversed their stance on that too) and become depending on Russia as a major energy source (which the US warned Europe / Germany to not do). Of course the shit hit the fan: Russia attacked Ukraine and everything turned to shit. And now it's estimated German car makers pay their energy price 7x more than was chinese car makers pay their energy. So, no, it's not all "the lethargy of German economy and business". Germany was (and to some extent still is) producing incredibly fine driving machines: not just VW but Audi, Porsche, BMW and Mercedes. And those cars did what was asked of cars: drive very finely. It's eurocrats/bureaucrats and german politicians who killed the german car industry. P.S: I've got nothing against EVs... But don't be an ideological idiot about it: don't kill your main industry while handing the keys of the kingdown to China. The shift was way too quick. The EU should have been way more cautious and shouldn't have stupidly closed so many nuclear plants (to moreover start burning more coal again).
- rjsw 3mo ago
  The EU didn't close any nuclear plants, that was just Germany.

tangenter 3mo ago

VW is a massive casualty, but the future of automotive is currently a cutthroat war between BYD and Tesla. Everyone else is, at best, a second tier competitor. Auto industry/dealerships for trad cars is not looking good.

LarsDu88 3mo ago
You're confusing Tesla for like 10 other Chinese brands. Tesla too is falling behind, particularly when it comes to price. BYD may very well be pulling ahead on battery tech and vertical integration right now. In a few years Tesla's primary moat will be political
- onlypassingthru 3mo ago
  'BYD has pulled ahead on battery tech and vertical integration right now.' - FTFY
AlotOfReading 3mo ago
I don't see how Tesla is a serious competitor in that matchup. Their sales have been declining for two years, and Chinese OEMs are clearly on the path to complete dominance in most foreign markets. In the US market, I think Hyundai (and to a much lesser extent Kia) is probably the most interesting OEM. EV sales that aren't declining, the highest American-made percentage vehicles (relevant given recent policy changes), a manufacturing partnership with Waymo, widespread consumer awareness, and relatively lower prices than their competitors. It'd be nice if they provided a better repair situation than Tesla, but that's the current industry I guess.
- the_real_cher 3mo ago
  2027 is going to change this sitnificantly. Toyota is releasing a full EV highlander, Honda is releasing the 0 series, Kia has some new EVs coming out. Next year is going to be a huge EV shift. Tesla is screwed.
  - 3mo ago

12958715 3mo ago

People have no money for cars. Maybe boomers whose health insurance you subsidize and whose overpriced apartments you rent can still afford one. Everyone else struggles with health insurance up more than 100% in 10 years, Döner up 100% in 6 years, electricity costs etc. But we feel good about the "rules based international order", which only the EU follows right now, dictated by public servants with inflation-indexed pensions.

lifestyleguru 3mo ago
I don't think cars have ever been so unexciting. As long as regulations were improving security it was fine, but in recent years they only push for more control and surveillance. Still despite the byzantine regulations they failed to address e.g. the obnoxious blinding headlights. Then yeah, rich boomers from rich EU countries are leaving scorched earth to everyone except their immediate family.
a34729t 3mo ago
Americans and Chinese have money for cars. Europeans, less so.
- throwaway270925 3mo ago
  Americans dont have the money either, they just need that car anyway because there are no other options in most of the US.
wolvoleo 3mo ago
I'm really happy not having a car anymore though. It gives me a lot of freedom. When I had a car I had to think about when to get back to it because of parking fees. To get it fixed/maintained. To have to return to the place I left it (I often walk across town). I couldn't have a drink before going back home. There were a few pluses like bringing big stuff and going outside of the city but I rarely do those things.

_s_a_m_ 3mo ago

A German economist explained on Insta that the main reason they are doing this is because Moody's making politics and reduced VWs rating, and VW is one of the largest credit holders in Europe and now they have been forced to act and do something about this unplanned rating change which will make loans expensive for them, without actually being a concrete automotive related issue in the first place.

alephnerd 3mo ago
> because Moody's making politics and reduced VWs rating... > without actually being a concrete automotive related issue in the first place... VW's market share in China (it's largest market) has collapsed - in 20 years it went from around 20% of all cars in China to 10% and current deliveries this year in China have fallen by 36%. This is a huge fall for a company whose Jetta was literally China's Model T. VW Group has been dependent on China, much of Europe, and the US for almost 2 decades. It lost the American market in the 2010s when Diesel-gate pushed it's American ICP to Toyota, Nissan, and Tesla and it lost it's Chinese marketshare when China began the NEV policy back in the 2010s. And European car sales haven't recovered to pre-COVID amounts. It isn't entirely an automotive issue, but it is very much a management issue. And nothing can be done about it - voting share is split between Lower Saxony, the Qatari royal family (17% voting share), the Porsche family, and IG Metall. Given the degree of state ownership in VW, it'll make GM's collapse look like a cakewalk.
- jshier 3mo ago
  Wasn't the China collapse entirely predictable based on the rise of China's domestic auto industry? Why would anyone buy a Jetta when you can get a BYD?
  - alephnerd 3mo ago
    The BYD EV boom only began in earnest in 2020 when the Han EV was released and the NEV was clubbed with local level subsidizes. The pieces were there but didn't catalyze until then.

robotnikman 3mo ago

Chinese car brands are eating the lunch of all the European automakers. They will need to do something to reverse the tide before its too late.

pineaux 3mo ago
They can just tariff the shit out of the Chinese cars. That will work great.

dieselgate 3mo ago

For some perspective VW Group has around 680k employees per wikipedia [0]. Doubling the estimate from 50k to 100k is pretty wild, though I had read last week it was 100k on the tdi-club forum thread "What's left for Volkswagen?" [1] [0] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group [1] https://forums.tdiclub.com/index.php?threads/what%E2%80%99s-left-for-volkswagen.547219/ https://forums.tdiclub.com/index.php?threads/what%E2%80%99s-...

huntoa 3mo ago

I think with the advent of cheap Chinese electric cars (new BYD for 7-9k€ in China) VW will die a slow death, slowed down by tariffs, tax-paid stimulation programs and bailouts from Germany. They can't compete on price or quality. I hate that tax money is wasted for this garbage company. Germany and the ECB has been financing VW group by buying their bonds. VW group has hundreds of billions of debt. German Central Bank president recently said (translated): "[It is] currently in the midst of a restructuring process. However, I also see opportunities — for instance, in the defense industry." Profit margin Volkswagen: 2.21% Profit Margin Toyota: 7.59% When I compared ICE compact cars some years ago, the Audi A1 (Volkswagen Group) was the only German contender with respect to quality, repair costs, failure statistics, etc. But it lost out to a Toyota, because the Audi was more expensive. Michael Burry's march BYD analysis was interesting. It said this (and much more): "BYD is potentially the lowest-cost producer of vehicles in the world thanks to its vertically integrated model at scale. BYD controls its supply chains and saves margin at every step. It makes its chips, batteries, bodies, motors, etc. [...] Factories are being built in Thailand, Brazil, Hungary, and Turkey. Europe put a 17% tariff on BYD cars [...]. Once local production is in gear, the tariff will disappear - a major future competitive advantage in Europe given BYD’s low cost advantage. [...] massive overseas spend [...] BYD has ~29% more revenue than Tesla and ~1/12th the market cap."