Remember that as of now the battery will cost about 1000-1500€ per 10kWh and was more than that a couple years back when VW started to go into EVs. The ID3 has 50-85kWh capacity When they started the ID3 7000-12000€ was going directly into the battery - so to china - it is still not much better. For the VW Golf it was said that the production of the whole car was costing VW 10.000-15.000€ and the profit per car was not high (due to overhead but mostly development cost).
@@anonimato1987 my car cost a little over 10k. I have roll down windows. A standard transmission and basic radio. No cruise control. Electric windows $2-3k each Decide if impressing people is really important
@@100xasd No surprise to me. Dacia is just a cheaper Reanult (pretty good cars) because it is made in Romania (cheaper labor costs) and it is made simpler (which is great in my opinion - cheaper maintenance). I just bought a slightly used Dacia Lodgy . interior made with cheap materials. no fancy electronics etc.
One reason is that a large part of the total cost and also the profit will go to china where all the batteries are produced. It is not that VW was raking in profits with cheaply build but expensive cars. They were losing money on every EV they sold. They were selling them for 5000€ less per car than production was costing them.
There are many experts and a lot of science regarding the mentioned fields. Many technologies used in these fields also originating from Germany 😉 So what do they do? Go to the US, since Germany is no place for Startups, or “digital”, despite the science and education 😄 well played. And here we are, feels also kind of entitled with all the hefty perks for workers and the feeling that you are entitled to a job and to keeping it. Not that a US is a good example. More 2 opposite pole and sustainable would be somewhere in the middle. Still much more reasonable than France and Italy where you almost are unable to let people go, even if that means a company goes under.
@@masakitonguba8919Go figure, once the electric car subsidy ended, the sales plummeted. Add closing of nuke plants and replacing cheap russian gas with 4x more expensive US LNG and hurray! you just won the trifecta.🎉 At least you can't start WW3, oh wait.
Not sure where you're getting those figures? Just checked the price in Austria, new one starts at 35k EUR including taxes? In Germany it's 37500, difference is diesel engine tax (thanks to dieselgate).
@@statarofortress I got a top spec Duster for £22,300 and it's great , yes , definitely lower quality inside but its also good enough , I have half leather interior and heated seats , sat nav , 360 degree cameras , what more can you want?
One thing we also deal with in the United States is egregious markups from auto dealers that have a monopoly on the car sale industry in the United States. They’re selling for 10-15k over MSRP and it’s super unaffordable.
we could afford chinese EVs, but our corrupt politicians dont want them to be sold here. europe and usa have become plutocratic dictatorships of big money.
@@freespiritable NOPE. In this case it's because greedy automakers decided to chase $20K margins instead of $2K margins per vehicle and jacked the price up for junk... Nobody wants to pay $40K for a beyond basic sedan...
We don’t care about electric car innovation, we care about the prices that don’t stop to grow for every model. Having a golf gti for almost 47.000 eur is insane or a golf over 60.000 eur. They are nuts!
Mmmmh, who else did that and crashed hard? Oh yeah, Boeing. If you stop producing value for the customer, you come to a point where customers buy without considering you.
Volkswagen is the leader in Germany, England, Spain and Europe... vice leader in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, CHIINA... imagine the situation of the others
What rethink? The car makers that did not rethink and stuck to combustion are still doing fine. Only VW completely turned to EVs while politics as well as green voters cheered. Notice how BMW which more or less stuck with combustion engines turned in a record profit last year? That will change of course if the EU does not stop the gas car ban
@@araara4746thanks Ruskie, learn to spell the actual name of that city you want to blame…that has nothing to do with the free market and decisions executives make.
I keeps hearing about 'Chinese.' Don’t blame China if you can't keep up. This is how global business works. Germany wants to sell in China, but doesn’t want China selling back? That's not fair trade.
VW has been in China over 40 years, they were making about 50% of their profits there. Given that you would imagine that they would be super focused on that market and know it better than anyone, especially given they were there before most of the locals even started. When I first went to China about 15 years ago they were still loads of VW Santana's, and they were still selling them with the oldest, dirtiest petrol engines, believe they only stopped selling that shape in 2022.
VW The brand that went up market and sadly went down in reliability and quality. I started with a Golf 1.6 D, and had Several Polo's all generations of the Caddy. Racked up alot of KM and every 2-3 years at the 150.000 km mark it was traded in. My VW T3 transporter (aircooled petrol) from 1984 still Runs after a hard working life, now driven as a weekend classic. My VW Caddy from 2021 has seen more downtine due to warrenty and garage work then my T3 i own for 30 years! So VW get your act togheter and build again good reliable cars for a fair price.
I had a 2013 opel corsa which was like 12 k new back then and my girlfriends family bought a used 2018 golf which was a lot more expensive even used and it just wasnt as good in any way Yes it had more power but was worde to drive The Technology inside was worse than in a 5 year older opel
I'm German (but living in Canada). Everybody in Germany who I know doesn't want an electrical car in the first place. That is where the insanity of politics comes in here. They just jam it down your throat.
That is it. I’m from the uk and our auto sector was just not as good as the German one and it collapsed. Poor management and infrastructure. I’m now a german resident (not in auto industry) and everything is well organized, but the Green Party is too politically powerful so they basically sabotage the German industry and have no idea about economics. However, I also think VW should have seen this coming. Too complacent. A management failure. The data was there, but they didn’t adjust quickly enough. However, you can’t reverse that by politics. The sad truth is VW will probably just die
@@hmbro3236 Yes I would love the EV experience but just cant afford one. Meanwhile I just fill half my tank with rocks, and then stop every couple hundred miles to hang out at the back of a crappy parking lot for an hour.
To miss the point entirely😂 VW isn't in crisis because they are losing market share in Europe (that may be in 2-5 years time), VW is in crisis because they are losing market share in China and rest of Asia. Where people want EVs.
@@Pierluigi_Di_Lorenzohow is hybrid tje future? They need 2 engines, 2 "tank"s system, 2 fuel, and 2 retanking system. That is the lie propagated by the german especially the german automotive industry. Even the financy minister wastes money by subsidizing synthetic fuel, just to justify continuing ICE car production
@@Pierluigi_Di_LorenzoEV’s are the future, hybrids are fine for the here and now. Chinese invested heavily in EV’s and have taken VW’s market in China.
The differece here is that Nokia tanked because they did not jump aboard the new ship (smarthones) that every consumer prefered. But VW jumped to the new ship (EVs) due to pressure from the EU which wants to sink the old ship and kill the combustion engine. But on that new ship threre are no customers. Notice that other german car manufacturers that only started EV production half-heartedly are doing much better.
@@paulb1951 Yes, but currently the EV market is saturated in the West, hybrids will be the way to go there in the coming years. In China and some other Asian countries EVs continue to sell well.
Cars that are made in Germany only had one real difference, they always seemed more expensive and in the last few decades it certainly wasn't a sign of build quality.
Germany was riding on the build quality thing for too long. Their cars are super unreliable if buying second hand and turn into a ticking timebomb after a 100K kms.
Stop making expensive, huge electric SUVs and start making affordable small city cars, you used to make. Germany has the political power to make the European Commission become realistic with legislation, the problem is that the German politicians are detached from reality.
when you create a system where suv (heavier) is better to produce because of emmision limits work, you invest huge money into advertisement so you will trick people into thinking that bigger car is safer... they themselfs are responsible. they are the ones who wanted euro 4,5 and so on, so they could force people to buy their overpriced cars. if world would be a place, where all the liars and scammers end like that :D
Yeah, VW was the first foreign automaker to enter the US that's still around. Yet the Japanese brands and even the Koreans have far surpassed them in reputation and sales. They are expensive and have bland designs, and like all European brands, basic maintenance is very costly for no reason, and it's highly over engineered as to be complex to fix basic. I believe they tried to move upmarket and were successful in Europe to be more premium. But not here in the US. They are such a pain and poorly thrown together. They do have a following here though. But they are third rate hacks compared to the competition. Very uncompetitive. They design special models for Europe and China, yet their investments for North America are pathetic. They just dont try. Just my opinion. But I think its telling how they have been here so long and are very far behind the competition and have been for decades.
They stopped selling the lower trims, but the Jetta with a manual was one of the cheaper cars on the market here until last year. People don't want to buy the basic cars anymore.
In 2010, the entry-level petrol model of the Volkswagen Passat cost £18,470 and now, the new one that came out costs £38000 entry level. And then we wonder why people are simply not buying these cars anymore. These executives have seen their wealth grow and they think this has been the case with the rest of us but nothing couldn't be further from the truth. They are completely detached from reality coupled with greed. The government MUST stand with workers
Exactly. The price of new cars skyrocketed in the last 15 years. It's the greed and also standard technology that should be optional for those who demand it. Abs, esp and aircondioner are enough for me. I can keep my line easyly I don t need line assist (just one example). Why do I have to pay for this if I don t need it? Why do I have to pay for an electric handbrake when the manual one is much more reliable? I Don t need electric windows. And the list goes on and on. Not the mention how expensive is the service of this unnecessary bs. Let them be optionally for those who want it.
@@dragossasr you do know that this is the exact attitude of indifference to innovation that led to sales decline for vw in China. You have been taught by German companies to believe that innovations and options need to be extremely costly. Chinese ev cars do all of this. Their Uber (didi) cars have electrically movable back seats even. And they are still cheaper than European producers. This same attitude of Germans not wanting these options has made their products completely undesirable in markets like china. I was there last month and felt like I made a travel for years back when I sat inside a vw tiguan after all my didi taxi trips.
Japanese car makers' profits are supported by weak Yen. If you remove the currency factor, basically every Japanese car maker barring Toyota and maybe Suzuki are doing bad.
@@Greenfield-li3bg Germany chose the euro because it will bring them strong purchasing power, bringing down costs in imports of raw materials and components for finished products Made in Germany. If You add to the above mentioned the strong Chinese and American demand, then You have the trade bonanza of the past 20 years.
The 1st trouble: Energy price hike after Nord Stream was sabotage 2nd: Shrinking demand (-20%) from China market because of EV. 3rd: lack of technology innovation 4th: rising cost but lesser productivity gains.
The 1st trouble: Energy price hike after nuclear power fleet was arbitrarily shutdown and Germany became over-reliant on natural gas (Nord Stream, etc) to back things up
3rd: lack of technology innovation WV faces a bigger problem, in China cars are moving towards [autonomous driving], and to do that, you need 5G (BYD and Huawei joint together a few weeks ago), you need chip manufacturing (yes, BYD makes their own chips), you need software people, all of which the WV system seems to be lacking, ... Edit： Self-driving taxis are already running in China, and the Chinese government is controlling the number so as not to cause mass unemployment, but the technology has reached that level, and VW is at least 10 years behind.
I totally disagree, the reason is they have increased costs due to, first of all, energy, then taxation, then all the environmental regulations that impose a heavy financial burden on many companies. As an example, I am involved with projects in my company here in Germany where millions upon millions must be invested to "upgrade" the production lines from the safety and environment perspective, to comply with government regulation, but these changes don't make the equipment better, faster or more efficient. We must change all motors, even though they are functioning OK, only to comply with energy regulations. This is the self-inflicted damage that the Germans are causing, so it doesn't surprise me that VW is suffering it too. He also mentioned bureaucracy, which I think is a major burden. The amount of red tape that you have to go through to start a line, a new product, etc., is so big and expensive that it eats away at the profits of the companies. There you have it. Germany shooting itself on the foot. Just because they "think" they are showing the world the way. This is madness.
Price aside, this is what happens when you start replacing solid physical buttons and controls with crappy screens, undeveloped user interfaces and touch sensitive garbage of the buttons. There is no place in a car for any of that.
I support domestic auto manufacturing but it is really hard to feel bad for VW after so many lies and missteps. Hopefully the Unions and executives can find a good compromise that supports workers and moves the company forward.
Vw polo costs 24 255€ and dacia sandero 12 600€,So i can have two cars for the price of one if i buy a dacia sandero. Automotive industry is a high volume industry not a high profit one but vw opted for the latter. Maybe reduce model offerings,streamline operations and think of cutting prices to become the people’s cars again
That's actually what happens when you cluelessly start shutting down nuclear power plants for no reason and without having another cheaper and cleaner energy source alternative ready to replace them 😑
And stopped buying cheap energy from Russia by the USA who then made sure of it by blowing Nord stream pipe lines up ,to be an enemy of the USA is dangerous to be it's friend is fatal .
People don't understand it's cheaper for a reason. Let's just wait a few years to see how these cheap cars play out in reliability, customer support, service support, spare part availability, etc.
@@AttilaGobor you do realize that most vw parts come from China. German cars aren't build from anything special or unique that Chinese cars don't have. Frame doors windows all of that is literally the same when it comes down to it, Chinese can sell it for alot cheaper because almost everything made in China, and they produce their own parts and batteries etc. Labor is also much cheaper.. So they are able to sell those vehicles for much cheaper but the quality is literally the same if not better. VW quality on the other hand was always bad, that's why they always on the bottom of the list when it comes to consumer reports, car and driver etc
@@i.d.6492 The Chinese sat in front of the TV with beer and popcorn, watching the Americans blow up the Europeans' Russian fuel pipeline. They laughed out loud. The Americans cleared the enemy for China's industrial expansion. The Chinese were very grateful to the Americans. China and the United States joined forces to destroy Europe's industry, and then they divided the spoils unevenly and started insulting each other.
I used to drive VW cc 2016. The coolant pump broke 3 times even during warranty. The propellers inside were made out of plastic. Yet the car is twice more expensive than chinese competitors. I bought recently a new MG RX5 full options, half the price than VW Tiguan in the same package. Works great so far, does the job well
VW should have had a part revision and made the parts of glass reinforced PPS instead of nylon, where the first repair is at no customer cost. They take customer loyalty for granted. Glass reinforced PPS is durable and better than metal for that application.
The problem is overpriced, no quality improved products. Most german cars now are using cheap plastic while asking for premium prices and when competition comes, which always do, that's a bad end for any company not just VW. European manufacturers kept up the prices really high for years now without solid improvements over products. And that's going to hurt back.
Build quality has fallen dramatically and prices are ridiculous. It's a shame as they were always good vehicles at reasonable cost - but not any longer
A bad carpenter always blames his tools. Volkswagen quality has gone down Volkswagen has failed to innovate Volkswagens energy costs have increased Volkswagen cars are not cost competitive Volkswagen management has been sleeping at the wheel
Fair share would also be a reduction as current prices are too high for an average quality car, with old-fashioned software. Open your eyes or go the Nokia way
China built 30M cars a year in 2023 Germany built 4.12M. If VW is not is successful in China, it's not successful anywhere. The battle is in China, not in Germany.
China use every tool available. Good engineering, automation, cheap labour, government subsidies, capital availability, burning the boats, copying Tesla, casting, battery innovation.
@@deaffeb Innovation takes time, capital, and will. VW has no will to innovate. When Tesla arrived they mocked them while the Chinese got to work copying them.
Both keeping factorys open that arent needed and developing new innovations cost money. If the choice is between the two, I'd vote to close the surplus factories and use the money to innovate.
Car manufacturing is a 100+ year old technology, so how come they can't make vehicles that are affordable. Get rid of all the unnecessary complexity would be a good start.
My colleague bought the last Golf and costs more than my Mercedes CLA. VOLKSWAGEN literally means a car for the people, but it is absolutely NOT a car for the people anymore.
Seems like German policy makers need to help diversify manufacturing away from the automobile sector. Volkswagen among others, transferred their technological lead to competitors in exchange for access to foreign markets, and no longer have a competitive advantage abroad or at home.
Exactly. You got it. They taught their future competitors how to do it. Now the chickens have come home to roost. The Germans have given so much to a rival country. I don’t understand it. I guess there were great short term gains. Could they not foresee this?
Independently of their expansion plans, technology on product is a good competitive advantage, but no where near game changing unless you consistently and rapidly innovate (faster than the competition can emulate you), which isn’t possible. At a reasonable innovation pace, manufacturers from other countries can always just copy your technology by buying a car and doing reverse engineering. The most valuable form of technological advantage is that within the production and managerial process, in my opinion. Besides, the German engineering muscle can’t really be fully flexed on a 20k dollar family car. I just don’t think that kind of market is sustainable for German businesses, if they intend to produce there.
You cannot imagine how diverse German manufacturing already is. Everyone sees only our cars, but the soles of your shoes are most probably made on a German machine in China or Mexico. Brazil and China got huge transformers from Germany for their High Voltage Direct Current power lines, most of the largest cruise ships in the Caribbeans are made in Germany, every single cell phone in the world contains sensors from BOSCH, every Apple Store all over the world as well as Apple Park in Cupertino got their glass from Seele right around my corner here in Augsburg, most house sized ship Diesel engines come from the company that invented the Diesel Engine, also here in Augsburg, many if not most robots that put car bodies together come from KUKA in Augsburg, every Airbus airplane contains parts made here in Augsburg, ever more trains and trams in North America are made by SIEMENS, the #1 and #6 largest sugar producing companies in the world are located in Germany, the Covid mRNA vaccine was invented by a German start-up that is now "big pharma" and worth billions, we are the #1 cheese export country in the world - by a wide margin, quite probably the nails, screws and dowels in your house are made in Germany as well as the (power) tools with which it was put together, and so on. A few cars less sold is a setback but not a catastrophe.
@@AllieRogers-mq1kfWhen the Germans first invested in China over 30 years ago, they thought to themselves that the Chinese will never be able to do anything by themselves. And look what happened.
Golf 8 has metal spike to hold it's bonnet. Cheap plastics on door etc. Golf 4 had struts yet golf used to be peoples car and now it is 30k+. What did you expect?
Oh, they jam the cars with EU mandated beeping features, they paralyse the roads with excessive speed bumps and surveillance, they make fuel and cars themselves into unaffordable luxury.. And then they get surprised that nobody wants to buy them. What a shock.
It's such a shame. The brand was born from its ethical and human rights roots. Then it went on to produce simple well engineered product's known for their quality and reliability. And the brand executives kept a straight and narrow approach to emissions regulations. Its just shocking that people aren't choosing them when looking for well built reliable long lasting product's that hold their value given their immense reputation on the used car market.
"ditching". And it's overall German policy failure and getting into Falin-Kvitinsky doctrine. Short term approach, too big reliance on Russia enabled Russia to act aggressively as their foreign policies suggested and it wasn't a secret really. Germany did a gamble on Russia and Russia being unreliable business partner who doesn't care about economy and have different focus shown that putting so much trust on them isn't wise. Especially that having Ukraine conquered is still huge costs, Russian shown they wanna flood Europe with immigrants from their side, preventing that will be costly. Ignoring it - enjoy more troublemakers and slightly worse stability on your country.
@@andrzejnadgirl2029 Can you show one piece of evidence that Russia ever acts aggressively towards Germany and is an unreliable business partner? Anyone can speculate on any possibility, but decisions cannot be made based on baseless speculation. Germany indeed did a gamble on Russia, and got screwed misserably.
I really love cars. But I think Im down to see some of them squirm under pressure. Their prices and lack of quality control have gotten out of hand. Pricing is out of control. They seem to want to charge more for less car volume. But they are leaving people out. Then dont understand why they have lower sales. The economy in many countries is in the gutter. Now Im not sure if costs are so ridiculously high they have to charge these prices. I feel like costs for sectors have far outstrip what consumers naturally make thus putting companies in a awkard position. Such as electricity being expensive in Germany. Just a thought Ive had. But greed is certainly a factor. Prices have to drop significantly to realign with what consumers actually make. Another factor is how overly complex cars are not, its dubious how long they can stay on the road when basics like the fancy LED headlights costs hundreds if not thousands for some models to replace. Cant just have a simple LED bulb these days for some reason. Think of all the other tech and safety stuff. There needs to be better methods to keep these cars on the roads for people who dont have the money to buy a new car. Heck even from a environmental standpoint its needed. We dont need throw away products. Should be required at this point that every car last about 30 years and 300,000 miles. Some of these companies have been building cars for over 100 years. Its ridiculous how they cant make bulletproof products. Is it really a wonder why more and more people talk about public transportation and alternatives? If we are destined to be stuck with expensive unreliable appliances that can't last 20 years, why pay legacy brand prices? Let's just buy cheap Chinese cars that will break just as soon anyway. At least we will save money.
Teslas last more than 300 000 miles. New batteries from China will have million mile/km guarantee so then they will last even longer. No gearbox, no engine failure, no rust if made from aluminium.
Of course executives will first cut manufacturing jobs, then close factories. While still paying 15mil Euros to each of 20 board members plus massive dividends to shareholders (held by board members). This is issue on executive level maybe cut cost on executive level? 🤷♂️
a big example in how a big company lose their way just interested in making profits and not really creating value and retention to their customers. They were one of the biggest but in this era if you dont really have a good R&D team to spend your budget in creating value and compete, your downfall is close. VW Dealerships across the globe are way way more expensive than their MSRPs so the thing is, nobody created an internal policy about overprice dealers?
At a certain point in the 2000s Germany realised that they could outsource nearly everything to China and just do the engineering. Recently, China realized they can just do the engineering better and cheaper themselves. Many countries were once exceptional are no longer so - Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, South Africa, Argentina.
Volkswagen is the leader in Germany, England, Spain and Europe... vice leader in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, CHIINA... imagine the situation of the others
VW had some 684,000 employees in 2023. That's about 309,000 more than the ever-efficient Toyota, which sold about 2 million more vehicles than VW worldwide last year. And which cars are more reliable? People want that their car last 10-15 years at minimum.
They are complaining about the slow sales, but nobody is mentioning their high prices and the fact that most of the decrease in sales is coming from plugin hybrids and electric cars that they have been replacing their entire lineup with.
Lucky for the high paid executives who make all those terrible decisions that have made VW a second rate car manufacturer as they will get paid their big bonuses.
As someone running a business in an EU country with similar taxation to Germany, I can say that taxes are burdensome for businesses, and it’s the taxes, not net salaries, that are the main reason for such high labor costs. Sooner or later, many businesses will move from Europe to countries with more favorable tax systems, especially global businesses where location is not a constraint
The thing is there is absolutely no reason to buy a VW. They are expensive, they excel at nothing. Even if they managed produce cheaper elsewhere, for better profit margin. Price is not going to come down for consumers so the sales slump will stay on.
Difficult to do so when you have employees litteraly pushing buttons getting paid 2k euro net vs same job in china with 300 eurp montly wage. The competition in the price is kinda unfair..
@@dirtyharry6297 They cant put high import taxes because the European car companies are also selling in china. Actually, one of the reason of the decline of VW is the loss of the market position in china which was one of their biggest. I work in audit and i ve audited lot of car manufacturers in germany, they have performance related issues, people wanting more work life balance etc which is fine ! In china however they work day and night to get the job done. How can you compete with that ? Answer is you cant. The smart solution would be to move to Romania or Morocco and externalise production to make it cheaper. Keep only the sales and headquarters in Germany. Lot of jobs are gonna be lost, but this will save the brand..
When EU mandated "zero emissions" for 2035 they expected that EVs will be made in Europe. Instead they bankrupting European auto manufacturing and making transportation dependent on China.
Had VW and other European companies taken the 2035 deadline seriously and put their highest skilled teams to work designing a really good EV then they might have a chance. But now, they've waited too long.
The EV market is saturated in the West, hybrids are the future. In China and some other Asian countries that is not the case. So VW's factories in China need to produce good EVs, in Europe affordable hybrids. Tough call for VW, since they are not good at either.
In the past, superior German engineering justified a higher labour cost. Now engineering from both Tesla and China (who has a low labour cost) has left German Engineering in 3rd or 4th or even 5th place. Of course, it is nearly impossible to tell union workers they must reduce their salaries to 50%, so the company then enters a death spiral and sheds customers. It is far from over and tariffs result in counter-tariffs.
It is very funny that the economist suggests subsidies for VW are needed when the EC just applied extra tariffs on Chinese manufactured cars. Am I the only one who thinks that is funny?
@@SK-kh2rs Certainly not saying anything about the fallout from the closures of factories. The issue is the fact politicians fail to understand the cost of their actions and just do what will win the next election.
It’s very clear, the VAG group produces some of the best high end vehicles, and VW and Skoda were supposed to be sturdy, affordable and available to the people. However management has pushed really into higher end, lower quality for these brands. The basic golf now costs more than a yearly salary for most people. It’s . A . Golf
it is the management's failure. EU thought by banning HEV, they could stay ahead of Japanese competitors. They never saw that Chinese OEMs to become their competitors so soon.
Herbert Diess told Volkswagen this years ago and they refused to listen to him. Perhaps now they will listen, even if it is a bit late. VW and German government need to lean into electric and not shy away from it. The longer they spurn the electric BEV vehicle the harder the crash will be.
They are already doing this, but in China. They invested in Chinese ev maker Xpeng as well as setting up an ev research and development centre in Hefei China. They can't do all this in Germany because most of the ev innovations are happening elsewhere.
Vw cars have become very expensive, even the small ones, vw polo starting at €22k, thats crazy, when a few years ago it was starting at around €15k, that’s 35% increase, no wonder people are not buying new cars. Also the Vw electrics are barebones inside, all plastic with 4 inch screen for instruments panel, that’s for laughs.
whatever Germany does, there will be no change and they can not compete with the Chinese, the only chance is to stick to quality. Of course, the prices have increased so much, but why, the gas that Germany gave up from Russia today pays 3,4 times more, a worker in China his salary is five times lower, materials are much more expensive today due to various sanctions and the economic war, in addition, Germany does not help the economy, but they help other countries in the war with billions, and what we see today is that more and more companies are moving to the USA and it is a real miracle if and one company remains in Europe.. electric vehicles are just an excuse like the green agenda, because the real example is the USA, where the sale of electric vehicles is decreasing every year, which means that the Chinese are not a competitor, because their models with gasoline and diesel engines are far behind European and usa...or maybe I'm wrong because I'm not an expert, but what they are talking about electric vehicles and China, there is not a single proof in reality that these are the reasons, and if they are, how will it help them as well as those who moved companies to the USA, do the workers there work for less money, or it will help them in developing electric cars...
New Golf matches quality with Golf mark 1. What did you expect? France and Italy have kept their prices relatively competitive while you raised them to the clouds. If they can do it you could've done that too. Greed and work ethic has came to bite you and get back what it gave you.
With a $30K vehicle to be considered low end or affordable, no wonder sales are slumped. Too much margin, VV and others. There is no way that vehicle costs more than $8K to build all in.
Since the pandemic the price of cars is gone ridiculous, for an ordinary working person to buy a new car is out of their grasp now, but then again food and energy prices are sky high also so it’s time for governments to reevaluate their ways of thinking.
Nie. Vw sprzedaje w Chinach 3x taniej niż w Europie bo za wszelką cenę chce utrzymać udział w rynku ale tam nikt nie nabiera sie na mało innowacyjne i odstające technologicznie od rynku produkty.
@@LifeIsLife1978 Prodaju oni 3 x jeftiniji u Kini jer tamo nemaju EU komisiju pod kontrolom kao ovdje i cijelu EU radili budalama. Ali cijela GER ekonomija je prevaranstka, rado što žele jer EU imaju u džepu
actually from their report, the energy cost is doubled because of sanction on Russia Putin warned this is an economy suicide many times, the european leaders didnt/dont believe
If they had kept and expanded their nuclear power base, and converting over gas-fire district heat to use nuclear power process heat and convert some more of the heat-only residential gas systems to heating+cooling heat pumps, then there'd be a no need for Russian and quite a chunk of other sourced gas to keep prices low. See France's power price vs Germany.
Here is Australia my last 2 cars were VW's. I was looking forward to driving an electric Polo or Golf.. or even an electric Beetle. To date, not a single VW EV has gone on sale here and there's zero talk of an electric beetle in the works, surely their most iconic design after the Kombi van. Speaking of which, the ID Buzz is supposed to start at $90,000 - $120,00AUD. That's CRAZY money.
In the USA, any Toyota is either in 'Build Phase' or 'in Transit'. The new car lots of Toyota dealerships are mostly empty. People take delivery directly from the delivery truck. My diehard VW fan friend dumped his ID4 and went with a Toyota.
25k-35k for a low end car is crazy
Over 25k
25k is about right
Remember that as of now the battery will cost about 1000-1500€ per 10kWh and was more than that a couple years back when VW started to go into EVs.
The ID3 has 50-85kWh capacity
When they started the ID3 7000-12000€ was going directly into the battery - so to china - it is still not much better.
For the VW Golf it was said that the production of the whole car was costing VW 10.000-15.000€ and the profit per car was not high (due to overhead but mostly development cost).
Oh, the sweet times when we bought brand new models for 14-16k.
@@anonimato1987 my car cost a little over 10k. I have roll down windows. A standard transmission and basic radio. No cruise control.
Electric windows $2-3k each
Decide if impressing people is really important
Its not "people's car" anymore they are too expensive
As an ex vw employee of 37 years, that's what I tried telling them all the time
True, the most sold new car this year in Europe is the Dacia Sandero. I never thought this would have happened (no offense to Dacia).
@@100xasd No surprise to me. Dacia is just a cheaper Reanult (pretty good cars) because it is made in Romania (cheaper labor costs) and it is made simpler (which is great in my opinion - cheaper maintenance). I just bought a slightly used Dacia Lodgy . interior made with cheap materials. no fancy electronics etc.
Companies in Germany needs Russian energy to help their product price competitive ^_^
@masakitonguba8919 Why are you replying the exact same thing on every comment?
This is what happens when you reduce costs (for yourself) but the cars keep getting more expensive (for the customers).
This comment doesn’t make sense, if you reduce costs it doesn’t make it more expensive for buyers
@@alexeysolovtcov5160 he meant - the benefit of cost reductions went to their executives
WV cars are to expensice,average person can barley aford them
@@alexeysolovtcov5160 I think what he is saying is the cost savings VW is making, isn’t being passed to the consumer.
One reason is that a large part of the total cost and also the profit will go to china where all the batteries are produced.
It is not that VW was raking in profits with cheaply build but expensive cars.
They were losing money on every EV they sold.
They were selling them for 5000€ less per car than production was costing them.
I think the fact that people are not buying that many 60k trashcans is a good thing. They haven’t become completely dumb yet.
No AI company, Phone company, Network equipment company, battery company, cpu chip company in Germany. What do german people study?
Sausages and beer? 😂
Probably a lot more than you imagine 😉
Nationalism 😂
There are many experts and a lot of science regarding the mentioned fields. Many technologies used in these fields also originating from Germany 😉 So what do they do? Go to the US, since Germany is no place for Startups, or “digital”, despite the science and education 😄 well played. And here we are, feels also kind of entitled with all the hefty perks for workers and the feeling that you are entitled to a job and to keeping it. Not that a US is a good example. More 2 opposite pole and sustainable would be somewhere in the middle. Still much more reasonable than France and Italy where you almost are unable to let people go, even if that means a company goes under.
@@masakitonguba8919Go figure, once the electric car subsidy ended, the sales plummeted. Add closing of nuke plants and replacing cheap russian gas with 4x more expensive US LNG and hurray! you just won the trifecta.🎉 At least you can't start WW3, oh wait.
60 000 € For a Tiguan might be one of the reasons for low sales numbers!
At the same time Americans are buying the same car for 35000.
Not sure where you're getting those figures? Just checked the price in Austria, new one starts at 35k EUR including taxes?
In Germany it's 37500, difference is diesel engine tax (thanks to dieselgate).
@@Masterrunescapeerthe key word here is “starts”. In order to get a relatively equipped car you have to cough up 40-45k easily
@@statarofortress I got a top spec Duster for £22,300 and it's great , yes , definitely lower quality inside but its also good enough , I have half leather interior and heated seats , sat nav , 360 degree cameras , what more can you want?
Americans get a totally different Tiguan for the NA market. It's bigger, and cheaper in every sense.
One thing we also deal with in the United States is egregious markups from auto dealers that have a monopoly on the car sale industry in the United States. They’re selling for 10-15k over MSRP and it’s super unaffordable.
Maybe they shouldn’t be building plastic fridges for 60k…
You're average working class can't afford a new car. Economy is tanking.
*Your
Germany has to stop being a socialist country otherwise it will start looking like soviet uniin
we could afford chinese EVs, but our corrupt politicians dont want them to be sold here. europe and usa have become plutocratic dictatorships of big money.
Cause they chose to move factories where cheap labor was instead of paying them a fair wage. Western companies prioritized profit over their people.
@@freespiritable NOPE. In this case it's because greedy automakers decided to chase $20K margins instead of $2K margins per vehicle and jacked the price up for junk... Nobody wants to pay $40K for a beyond basic sedan...
The new GTI is all plastic in the interior and feels very cheap, yet is much more expensive.
Dose not feel cheap at all drives nice sold car
We don’t care about electric car innovation, we care about the prices that don’t stop to grow for every model. Having a golf gti for almost 47.000 eur is insane or a golf over 60.000 eur. They are nuts!
Quality is super low . VW has long focused on shareholder returns over the quality of the vehicles
Mmmmh, who else did that and crashed hard? Oh yeah, Boeing. If you stop producing value for the customer, you come to a point where customers buy without considering you.
And Honda, the quality is getting worse and worse, and the company's profits are getting higher and higher.@@deepbluedivingexploration
Absolutely 💯
Volkswagen is the leader in Germany, England, Spain and Europe... vice leader in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, CHIINA... imagine the situation of the others
They should learn from Toyota, Reliable and sustainable hybrids.
A 'strategic Rethink' was needed 10 years ago. The board and management need to shoulder the brunt of this issue.
They are not allowed to think. They must follow their master in Washinton.
What rethink?
The car makers that did not rethink and stuck to combustion are still doing fine.
Only VW completely turned to EVs while politics as well as green voters cheered.
Notice how BMW which more or less stuck with combustion engines turned in a record profit last year?
That will change of course if the EU does not stop the gas car ban
They had Diess but the Unions didn’t like what he was telling them.
Except in Germany workers can vote - so any attempt to cut labour costs would be shot down.
@@araara4746thanks Ruskie, learn to spell the actual name of that city you want to blame…that has nothing to do with the free market and decisions executives make.
I keeps hearing about 'Chinese.' Don’t blame China if you can't keep up. This is how global business works. Germany wants to sell in China, but doesn’t want China selling back? That's not fair trade.
I will let them spend all of their time playing the blame game. It would not affect China at all, but themself.
What about rejecting cheap energy from Russia?
@@tayikolla6205
Rejecting cheap Russian energy, then buying expensive US energy is boundless stupidity.
VW has been in China over 40 years, they were making about 50% of their profits there. Given that you would imagine that they would be super focused on that market and know it better than anyone, especially given they were there before most of the locals even started. When I first went to China about 15 years ago they were still loads of VW Santana's, and they were still selling them with the oldest, dirtiest petrol engines, believe they only stopped selling that shape in 2022.
Yea no worries just let yuan to be marker driven. Or EU will put high tariffs on China imports or EU will collapse.
VW The brand that went up market and sadly went down in reliability and quality.
I started with a Golf 1.6 D, and had Several Polo's all generations of the Caddy.
Racked up alot of KM and every 2-3 years at the 150.000 km mark it was traded in.
My VW T3 transporter (aircooled petrol) from 1984 still Runs after a hard working life, now driven as a weekend classic.
My VW Caddy from 2021 has seen more downtine due to warrenty and garage work then my T3 i own for 30 years!
So VW get your act togheter and build again good reliable cars for a fair price.
I had a 2013 opel corsa which was like 12 k new back then and my girlfriends family bought a used 2018 golf which was a lot more expensive even used and it just wasnt as good in any way
Yes it had more power but was worde to drive
The Technology inside was worse than in a 5 year older opel
Gli euro 6, 7.. nn valgono niente.. meno devono inquinare, meno durano..
I'm German (but living in Canada). Everybody in Germany who I know doesn't want an electrical car in the first place. That is where the insanity of politics comes in here. They just jam it down your throat.
That is it. I’m from the uk and our auto sector was just not as good as the German one and it collapsed. Poor management and infrastructure. I’m now a german resident (not in auto industry) and everything is well organized, but the Green Party is too politically powerful so they basically sabotage the German industry and have no idea about economics. However, I also think VW should have seen this coming. Too complacent. A management failure. The data was there, but they didn’t adjust quickly enough. However, you can’t reverse that by politics. The sad truth is VW will probably just die
Funny, most people where my family live in Germany want EVs, but just can't afford one they want
@@hmbro3236 Yes I would love the EV experience but just cant afford one.
Meanwhile I just fill half my tank with rocks, and then stop every couple hundred miles to hang out at the back of a crappy parking lot for an hour.
To miss the point entirely😂 VW isn't in crisis because they are losing market share in Europe (that may be in 2-5 years time), VW is in crisis because they are losing market share in China and rest of Asia. Where people want EVs.
First rule of business: Focus on customer needs, not politicians. They should have said NO.
People might be interested to know that VW was selling the ID3 for about €15,000 euros in China.
Didn’t learn anything from Nokia ? End of an era.
Hybrids are the future and VW produces them since 2011. Trying to get into EVs was a costly mistake. But they have learned.
@@Pierluigi_Di_Lorenzohow is hybrid tje future? They need 2 engines, 2 "tank"s system, 2 fuel, and 2 retanking system. That is the lie propagated by the german especially the german automotive industry. Even the financy minister wastes money by subsidizing synthetic fuel, just to justify continuing ICE car production
@@Pierluigi_Di_LorenzoEV’s are the future, hybrids are fine for the here and now. Chinese invested heavily in EV’s and have taken VW’s market in China.
The differece here is that Nokia tanked because they did not jump aboard the new ship (smarthones) that every consumer prefered.
But VW jumped to the new ship (EVs) due to pressure from the EU which wants to sink the old ship and kill the combustion engine.
But on that new ship threre are no customers.
Notice that other german car manufacturers that only started EV production half-heartedly are doing much better.
@@paulb1951 Yes, but currently the EV market is saturated in the West, hybrids will be the way to go there in the coming years. In China and some other Asian countries EVs continue to sell well.
Cars that are made in Germany only had one real difference, they always seemed more expensive and in the last few decades it certainly wasn't a sign of build quality.
Germany was riding on the build quality thing for too long. Their cars are super unreliable if buying second hand and turn into a ticking timebomb after a 100K kms.
Companies in Germany needs Russian energy to help their product price competitive ^_^
@@masakitonguba8919 They were never competitive on price but you bought them for the badge and what was perceived to be a superior product.
In the past they simply had no competition, now others make better cars cheaper.
You want a reliable car you buy Japanese, if you want a cheap car you buy Chinese . Why have to spend 30k on a car anyways ?
Toyota has had a ton of issues lately. They all seem to be selling junk now.
@@zachlafond2652 not true
@@letsrock4979 sry but true
I have Škoda Octavia first generation 1.9 TDi 115 hp, and its more reliable than all new cars. 25 years and over 410 000 kilometers and she still run.
We don‘t want reduced to minimum iPads on wheels! We want real cars!
Touch screen 🤮
Stop making expensive, huge electric SUVs and start making affordable small city cars, you used to make. Germany has the political power to make the European Commission become realistic with legislation, the problem is that the German politicians are detached from reality.
Suv has a place in the car market they aren't selling well for no reason
they must not because the planet is burning
Germany is a colony occupied by the Americans - just like the entire EU.
when you create a system where suv (heavier) is better to produce because of emmision limits work, you invest huge money into advertisement so you will trick people into thinking that bigger car is safer... they themselfs are responsible. they are the ones who wanted euro 4,5 and so on, so they could force people to buy their overpriced cars. if world would be a place, where all the liars and scammers end like that :D
BMW ev is successful.
It's so expensive to buy their cars in Canada
Yeah, VW was the first foreign automaker to enter the US that's still around. Yet the Japanese brands and even the Koreans have far surpassed them in reputation and sales.
They are expensive and have bland designs, and like all European brands, basic maintenance is very costly for no reason, and it's highly over engineered as to be complex to fix basic. I believe they tried to move upmarket and were successful in Europe to be more premium. But not here in the US. They are such a pain and poorly thrown together. They do have a following here though. But they are third rate hacks compared to the competition. Very uncompetitive. They design special models for Europe and China, yet their investments for North America are pathetic. They just dont try.
Just my opinion. But I think its telling how they have been here so long and are very far behind the competition and have been for decades.
They stopped selling the lower trims, but the Jetta with a manual was one of the cheaper cars on the market here until last year. People don't want to buy the basic cars anymore.
Same in Australia, a Golf would set you back A$40,000 while a Mazda 3 costs $31,000.
@@Hkchinese888that’s crZy
@@Hkchinese888 in malaysia, golf gti starts at 58,379.748 US Dollars, that's 86,814.151 Australian Dollars...
VW should downsize by sacrificing high positioned executives and retain the regular workers.
You can fire entire C suite and it won't make any major dent in VW financial position.
European industry is toast without cheap Russian energy.
Absolutely 💯
Volks are making too much cars that needed. They only need 80% of current productivity/capacity from reports
firing regular workers is a must.....
If they reduce their overheads (fire the over compensated CEOs), they could sell their cars for cheaper prices and compete better??
That makes so much sense … not
In 2010, the entry-level petrol model of the Volkswagen Passat cost £18,470 and now, the new one that came out costs £38000 entry level. And then we wonder why people are simply not buying these cars anymore. These executives have seen their wealth grow and they think this has been the case with the rest of us but nothing couldn't be further from the truth. They are completely detached from reality coupled with greed. The government MUST stand with workers
Exactly. The price of new cars skyrocketed in the last 15 years. It's the greed and also standard technology that should be optional for those who demand it. Abs, esp and aircondioner are enough for me. I can keep my line easyly I don t need line assist (just one example). Why do I have to pay for this if I don t need it? Why do I have to pay for an electric handbrake when the manual one is much more reliable? I Don t need electric windows. And the list goes on and on. Not the mention how expensive is the service of this unnecessary bs. Let them be optionally for those who want it.
@@dragossasr you do know that this is the exact attitude of indifference to innovation that led to sales decline for vw in China. You have been taught by German companies to believe that innovations and options need to be extremely costly.
Chinese ev cars do all of this. Their Uber (didi) cars have electrically movable back seats even. And they are still cheaper than European producers.
This same attitude of Germans not wanting these options has made their products completely undesirable in markets like china. I was there last month and felt like I made a travel for years back when I sat inside a vw tiguan after all my didi taxi trips.
Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda....record income.
lies,toyota are also becoming crapshit
lower costs than Germany
Japanese car makers' profits are supported by weak Yen. If you remove the currency factor, basically every Japanese car maker barring Toyota and maybe Suzuki are doing bad.
@@Greenfield-li3bg Germany chose the euro because it will bring them strong purchasing power, bringing down costs in imports of raw materials and components for finished products Made in Germany. If You add to the above mentioned the strong Chinese and American demand, then You have the trade bonanza of the past 20 years.
The 1st trouble: Energy price hike after Nord Stream was sabotage
2nd: Shrinking demand (-20%) from China market because of EV.
3rd: lack of technology innovation
4th: rising cost but lesser productivity gains.
The 1st trouble: Energy price hike after nuclear power fleet was arbitrarily shutdown and Germany became over-reliant on natural gas (Nord Stream, etc) to back things up
5h. Russian market shutdown. EU put sanctions, but China increased import there by 600%
Energy price.
Notdstream, closing nuclear plants, green BS,....
3rd: lack of technology innovation
WV faces a bigger problem, in China cars are moving towards [autonomous driving], and to do that, you need 5G (BYD and Huawei joint together a few weeks ago), you need chip manufacturing (yes, BYD makes their own chips), you need software people, all of which the WV system seems to be lacking, ...
Edit： Self-driving taxis are already running in China, and the Chinese government is controlling the number so as not to cause mass unemployment, but the technology has reached that level, and VW is at least 10 years behind.
Companies in Germany needs Russian energy to help their product price competitive ^_^
It isn't about the economy, faliure to innovate will ruin all companies.
They did innovate. They have more expensive GNL from the US...
There wasn't much to innovate in cars for century, they are just getting a slightly better year after year. This is largely stagnant business.
I totally disagree, the reason is they have increased costs due to, first of all, energy, then taxation, then all the environmental regulations that impose a heavy financial burden on many companies. As an example, I am involved with projects in my company here in Germany where millions upon millions must be invested to "upgrade" the production lines from the safety and environment perspective, to comply with government regulation, but these changes don't make the equipment better, faster or more efficient. We must change all motors, even though they are functioning OK, only to comply with energy regulations. This is the self-inflicted damage that the Germans are causing, so it doesn't surprise me that VW is suffering it too. He also mentioned bureaucracy, which I think is a major burden. The amount of red tape that you have to go through to start a line, a new product, etc., is so big and expensive that it eats away at the profits of the companies. There you have it. Germany shooting itself on the foot. Just because they "think" they are showing the world the way. This is madness.
It is about the economy. German companies got completely shafted by high energy prices
@@sebastiangruenfeld141 One of the benefits of the war in Ukraine. They are moving to the US.
This is not just a VW story, it's a Germany story.
25K$, brand new VW of 2018, had more issues that the shittiest Fiat car I had in late 1980s
Price aside, this is what happens when you start replacing solid physical buttons and controls with crappy screens, undeveloped user interfaces and touch sensitive garbage of the buttons. There is no place in a car for any of that.
I support domestic auto manufacturing but it is really hard to feel bad for VW after so many lies and missteps. Hopefully the Unions and executives can find a good compromise that supports workers and moves the company forward.
nothing wrong with workers, it is engineer fault, who designs non competitive goods.
design in china, manufacturing in german.
Vw polo costs 24 255€ and dacia sandero 12 600€,So i can have two cars for the price of one if i buy a dacia sandero.
Automotive industry is a high volume industry not a high profit one but vw opted for the latter.
Maybe reduce model offerings,streamline operations and think of cutting prices to become the people’s cars again
Western automakers are now toast in China, that is the American and European auto manufacturers.
NO
Tesla is doing great in China ! Legacy brands are F-ked
I doubt most people realise that China was VW's most important market where it was making about 50% of its profits.
Only until Europrotectionism starts taxing chinese imports.
Tesla: hold my beer.
@@KP-xi4bj Tesla will run into exactly the same problem. China will push out all foreign competitors, and Tesla depends heavily on China for profits.
This is what happened when you left Russia and following the US Sanctions.
That's actually what happens when you cluelessly start shutting down nuclear power plants for no reason and without having another cheaper and cleaner energy source alternative ready to replace them 😑
Exactly 👍
And stopped buying cheap energy from Russia by the USA who then made sure of it by blowing Nord stream pipe lines up ,to be an enemy of the USA is dangerous to be it's friend is fatal .
Was für ein Schwachsinn. Der Atomausstieg wurde vor über einem Jahrzehnt von CDU und FDP beschlossen. Atomkraft ist weltweit tot.
Lost the largest Sales Market = China.
Game changed.
People don't understand it's cheaper for a reason.
Let's just wait a few years to see how these cheap cars play out in reliability, customer support, service support, spare part availability, etc.
@@AttilaGobor you do realize that most vw parts come from China. German cars aren't build from anything special or unique that Chinese cars don't have. Frame doors windows all of that is literally the same when it comes down to it, Chinese can sell it for alot cheaper because almost everything made in China, and they produce their own parts and batteries etc. Labor is also much cheaper.. So they are able to sell those vehicles for much cheaper but the quality is literally the same if not better. VW quality on the other hand was always bad, that's why they always on the bottom of the list when it comes to consumer reports, car and driver etc
@@i.d.6492 The Chinese sat in front of the TV with beer and popcorn, watching the Americans blow up the Europeans' Russian fuel pipeline. They laughed out loud. The Americans cleared the enemy for China's industrial expansion. The Chinese were very grateful to the Americans. China and the United States joined forces to destroy Europe's industry, and then they divided the spoils unevenly and started insulting each other.
@@llllll-mp1zr is that the stroy you made up in your head? Cool.
@@llllll-mp1zr nice brainwashed story you made there in your head buddy
I used to drive VW cc 2016. The coolant pump broke 3 times even during warranty. The propellers inside were made out of plastic. Yet the car is twice more expensive than chinese competitors. I bought recently a new MG RX5 full options, half the price than VW Tiguan in the same package. Works great so far, does the job well
I also like MG
VW should have had a part revision and made the parts of glass reinforced PPS instead of nylon, where the first repair is at no customer cost. They take customer loyalty for granted. Glass reinforced PPS is durable and better than metal for that application.
Friendship without limits would stop me buying an MG or any Chinese car for that matter.
China need to bring back the MGB GT 😂
Companies in Germany needs Russian energy to help their product price competitive ^_^
The problem is overpriced, no quality improved products. Most german cars now are using cheap plastic while asking for premium prices and when competition comes, which always do, that's a bad end for any company not just VW. European manufacturers kept up the prices really high for years now without solid improvements over products. And that's going to hurt back.
Build quality has fallen dramatically and prices are ridiculous. It's a shame as they were always good vehicles at reasonable cost - but not any longer
Salaries have not gone up in Germany in the last years. We are racing to the bottom, fighting who would offer anything for a lower price
VW too slow to innovate. China on the other hand... Who could have imagined it?
everyone who follows global markets
Most of them know its coming, but they focus on how to contain China rather than to fix themself.
Not innovating
Stealing tech then producing cheap versions by govt.
China on the other hand sells unreliable cars.. who is buying them outside china?
China has cheap raw materials and gas from Russia, it's not a very fair competition, right?
Germany 🇩🇪 has been overproducing cars since decades and flooding foreign countries markets
We went bankrupt with our roads full of German cars in Portugal in ‘10 , but sure, it was all our fault...
A bad carpenter always blames his tools.
Volkswagen quality has gone down
Volkswagen has failed to innovate
Volkswagens energy costs have increased
Volkswagen cars are not cost competitive
Volkswagen management has been sleeping at the wheel
Naahhh.... they're betting too much in EV
The executive and stockholders earns too much. Please give a fair share to the workers.
Fair share would also be a reduction as current prices are too high for an average quality car, with old-fashioned software. Open your eyes or go the Nokia way
China built 30M cars a year in 2023 Germany built 4.12M. If VW is not is successful in China, it's not successful anywhere. The battle is in China, not in Germany.
40% of their global sales.
China is unleashing her power of a complete supply chain that makes manufacturing of cars very seamless and cheap. This look like the chenese era
Chinese achiving POWER without bullying or using bullets against anyone! Intelligence at its best, 😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@samuellopesbaule5745 At least the Nord Stream pipeline was not bombed by the Chinese😂
China is building electric cars and our governments are pushing electric cars....
See what is happening?.
The Answer is 50% right! The EU USA Australia Japan there are closed the border for flooding Chinas ECars!
China use every tool available. Good engineering, automation, cheap labour, government subsidies, capital availability, burning the boats, copying Tesla, casting, battery innovation.
When an industry becomes unprofitable in the USA, the companies are ruthless. No conversations or unions. You’re Fired!
.. they took bailout bucks at home and also have joint ventures in china 🤣. Ford with Chang'an, GM with SAIC etc. All posers.
US wants de-Industrialisation of Europe.
That is so true. We are just a number nor human to the corporate greed. Sad, very sad.
Thats called China.. they win the west is pathetic.
The administration are giving so much taxpayer $ as subsidies to Intel .
But Intel still .....
Closing factories will not AVOID declining sales..... INNOVATION does. Weird. Factories closure is the result. Weird headline.
Innovation takes time, cutting cost does not, simple as that, i.e. strategic nothinking.
@@deaffeb Innovation takes time, capital, and will. VW has no will to innovate. When Tesla arrived they mocked them while the Chinese got to work copying them.
they have overcapacity, only need 80% of current one
Both keeping factorys open that arent needed and developing new innovations cost money. If the choice is between the two, I'd vote to close the surplus factories and use the money to innovate.
Car manufacturing is a 100+ year old technology, so how come they can't make vehicles that are affordable. Get rid of all the unnecessary complexity would be a good start.
My colleague bought the last Golf and costs more than my Mercedes CLA. VOLKSWAGEN literally means a car for the people, but it is absolutely NOT a car for the people anymore.
Seems like German policy makers need to help diversify manufacturing away from the automobile sector. Volkswagen among others, transferred their technological lead to competitors in exchange for access to foreign markets, and no longer have a competitive advantage abroad or at home.
Exactly. You got it. They taught their future competitors how to do it. Now the chickens have come home to roost. The Germans have given so much to a rival country. I don’t understand it. I guess there were great short term gains. Could they not foresee this?
Independently of their expansion plans, technology on product is a good competitive advantage, but no where near game changing unless you consistently and rapidly innovate (faster than the competition can emulate you), which isn’t possible. At a reasonable innovation pace, manufacturers from other countries can always just copy your technology by buying a car and doing reverse engineering. The most valuable form of technological advantage is that within the production and managerial process, in my opinion. Besides, the German engineering muscle can’t really be fully flexed on a 20k dollar family car. I just don’t think that kind of market is sustainable for German businesses, if they intend to produce there.
@@AllieRogers-mq1kf It's called greed.
You cannot imagine how diverse German manufacturing already is. Everyone sees only our cars, but the soles of your shoes are most probably made on a German machine in China or Mexico. Brazil and China got huge transformers from Germany for their High Voltage Direct Current power lines, most of the largest cruise ships in the Caribbeans are made in Germany, every single cell phone in the world contains sensors from BOSCH, every Apple Store all over the world as well as Apple Park in Cupertino got their glass from Seele right around my corner here in Augsburg, most house sized ship Diesel engines come from the company that invented the Diesel Engine, also here in Augsburg, many if not most robots that put car bodies together come from KUKA in Augsburg, every Airbus airplane contains parts made here in Augsburg, ever more trains and trams in North America are made by SIEMENS, the #1 and #6 largest sugar producing companies in the world are located in Germany, the Covid mRNA vaccine was invented by a German start-up that is now "big pharma" and worth billions, we are the #1 cheese export country in the world - by a wide margin, quite probably the nails, screws and dowels in your house are made in Germany as well as the (power) tools with which it was put together, and so on. A few cars less sold is a setback but not a catastrophe.
@@AllieRogers-mq1kfWhen the Germans first invested in China over 30 years ago, they thought to themselves that the Chinese will never be able to do anything by themselves. And look what happened.
Anyone surprised?! Its sad but completely self inflicted.
Volkswagen now is not people's car anymore... Its not affordable for many... Just go to the basic what Volkswagen really means.. And you'll be fine
China says to Germany, this is my home work please take it home and review it. Thank you for 40 years teaching us technology and marketing.
Golf 8 has metal spike to hold it's bonnet. Cheap plastics on door etc. Golf 4 had struts yet golf used to be peoples car and now it is 30k+. What did you expect?
Realise the paradigm shift. The top level management can’t be too old for companies to survive.
Exactly!!! Leadership is the root cause… especially a generation shift was missed !!!
Oh, they jam the cars with EU mandated beeping features, they paralyse the roads with excessive speed bumps and surveillance, they make fuel and cars themselves into unaffordable luxury.. And then they get surprised that nobody wants to buy them. What a shock.
The workers and then the government will bear the costs of the mistakes of the executives, who will be compensated generously no matter what.
Which means in the end the tax payers have to bail out VW again while the executives enjoy their vacation in house number 3
Government is too blame as well... horrible selfdestructive policies.
This may be a new thing for Germany, but the British, Americans and Canadians have all seen this before.
It's such a shame. The brand was born from its ethical and human rights roots. Then it went on to produce simple well engineered product's known for their quality and reliability. And the brand executives kept a straight and narrow approach to emissions regulations. Its just shocking that people aren't choosing them when looking for well built reliable long lasting product's that hold their value given their immense reputation on the used car market.
Dw not talking about extremely energy cost
They're not allowes to talk about the suicide move ditching Russia's cheap energy.
"ditching". And it's overall German policy failure and getting into Falin-Kvitinsky doctrine. Short term approach, too big reliance on Russia enabled Russia to act aggressively as their foreign policies suggested and it wasn't a secret really. Germany did a gamble on Russia and Russia being unreliable business partner who doesn't care about economy and have different focus shown that putting so much trust on them isn't wise.
Especially that having Ukraine conquered is still huge costs, Russian shown they wanna flood Europe with immigrants from their side, preventing that will be costly. Ignoring it - enjoy more troublemakers and slightly worse stability on your country.
@@andrzejnadgirl2029
Can you show one piece of evidence that Russia ever acts aggressively towards Germany and is an unreliable business partner?
Anyone can speculate on any possibility, but decisions cannot be made based on baseless speculation.
Germany indeed did a gamble on Russia, and got screwed misserably.
@@andrzejnadgirl2029seems that trying to expand NATO right up to Russia's border, despite vehement warnings, wasn't such a great idea.
@@araara4746good way to put it 😅
I really love cars.
But I think Im down to see some of them squirm under pressure. Their prices and lack of quality control have gotten out of hand.
Pricing is out of control. They seem to want to charge more for less car volume. But they are leaving people out. Then dont understand why they have lower sales. The economy in many countries is in the gutter. Now Im not sure if costs are so ridiculously high they have to charge these prices. I feel like costs for sectors have far outstrip what consumers naturally make thus putting companies in a awkard position. Such as electricity being expensive in Germany. Just a thought Ive had. But greed is certainly a factor. Prices have to drop significantly to realign with what consumers actually make.
Another factor is how overly complex cars are not, its dubious how long they can stay on the road when basics like the fancy LED headlights costs hundreds if not thousands for some models to replace. Cant just have a simple LED bulb these days for some reason. Think of all the other tech and safety stuff. There needs to be better methods to keep these cars on the roads for people who dont have the money to buy a new car. Heck even from a environmental standpoint its needed. We dont need throw away products. Should be required at this point that every car last about 30 years and 300,000 miles. Some of these companies have been building cars for over 100 years. Its ridiculous how they cant make bulletproof products. Is it really a wonder why more and more people talk about public transportation and alternatives?
If we are destined to be stuck with expensive unreliable appliances that can't last 20 years, why pay legacy brand prices? Let's just buy cheap Chinese cars that will break just as soon anyway. At least we will save money.
Teslas last more than 300 000 miles. New batteries from China will have million mile/km guarantee so then they will last even longer. No gearbox, no engine failure, no rust if made from aluminium.
Of course executives will first cut manufacturing jobs, then close factories. While still paying 15mil Euros to each of 20 board members plus massive dividends to shareholders (held by board members). This is issue on executive level maybe cut cost on executive level? 🤷♂️
They got greedy. New car prices waaaaaay too high. Not even on people’s radar anymore
a big example in how a big company lose their way just interested in making profits and not really creating value and retention to their customers. They were one of the biggest but in this era if you dont really have a good R&D team to spend your budget in creating value and compete, your downfall is close. VW Dealerships across the globe are way way more expensive than their MSRPs so the thing is, nobody created an internal policy about overprice dealers?
Germany is completely dropping the ball on AI and Robots. It's so sad to see.
At a certain point in the 2000s Germany realised that they could outsource nearly everything to China and just do the engineering. Recently, China realized they can just do the engineering better and cheaper themselves. Many countries were once exceptional are no longer so - Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, South Africa, Argentina.
Volkswagen is the leader in Germany, England, Spain and Europe... vice leader in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, CHIINA... imagine the situation of the others
Companies in Germany needs Russian energy to help their product price competitive ^_^
Most of VW reliability problems after warranty expires i rather buy a toyota reliability resale instead
yes Toyota is now what VW used to be. Simple, reliable.
Germany should close all the factories and go fully green 😂
yes, the planet is burning!!! 😁
VW had some 684,000 employees in 2023. That's about 309,000 more than the ever-efficient Toyota, which sold about 2 million more vehicles than VW worldwide last year. And which cars are more reliable? People want that their car last 10-15 years at minimum.
The "People's car" has the most expensive service costs.
They are complaining about the slow sales, but nobody is mentioning their high prices and the fact that most of the decrease in sales is coming from plugin hybrids and electric cars that they have been replacing their entire lineup with.
I guess US gas is not as good as Russian gas!
Lucky for the high paid executives who make all those terrible decisions that have made VW a second rate car manufacturer as they will get paid their big bonuses.
As someone running a business in an EU country with similar taxation to Germany, I can say that taxes are burdensome for businesses, and it’s the taxes, not net salaries, that are the main reason for such high labor costs. Sooner or later, many businesses will move from Europe to countries with more favorable tax systems, especially global businesses where location is not a constraint
The thing is there is absolutely no reason to buy a VW. They are expensive, they excel at nothing. Even if they managed produce cheaper elsewhere, for better profit margin. Price is not going to come down for consumers so the sales slump will stay on.
Reduce prices - we will buy your cars
dont buy! vw hat Abgaswerte manipuliert und Kunden angelogen. vergessen?
Difficult to do so when you have employees litteraly pushing buttons getting paid 2k euro net vs same job in china with 300 eurp montly wage. The competition in the price is kinda unfair..
@@mohammedajaha1247 put High Tax on Chinese import, safe auto industry
@@mohammedajaha1247 VW wages 3.500-5.000 Euro per m.
@@dirtyharry6297 They cant put high import taxes because the European car companies are also selling in china. Actually, one of the reason of the decline of VW is the loss of the market position in china which was one of their biggest. I work in audit and i ve audited lot of car manufacturers in germany, they have performance related issues, people wanting more work life balance etc which is fine ! In china however they work day and night to get the job done. How can you compete with that ? Answer is you cant. The smart solution would be to move to Romania or Morocco and externalise production to make it cheaper. Keep only the sales and headquarters in Germany. Lot of jobs are gonna be lost, but this will save the brand..
VW should go for Hybrids otherwise they are dead.
Electric
A car brand that doesn't even listen to it's customers. They don't even a idea what people are asking for.
Layoffs are an admission of executive management failure.
Not only are they too expensive to buy, but they are too expensive to fix WHEN they go wrong.
💯 true
When EU mandated "zero emissions" for 2035 they expected that EVs will be made in Europe. Instead they bankrupting European auto manufacturing and making transportation dependent on China.
Now it’s 2024, not 2035😂
Had VW and other European companies taken the 2035 deadline seriously and put their highest skilled teams to work designing a really good EV then they might have a chance. But now, they've waited too long.
Never seen a Chynese ev here where I live in Europe. Skoda, Hyundai, Audi, VW and Teslas are popular
@@stevemcgowen can't see them when the tariff is so damm high.
The EV market is saturated in the West, hybrids are the future. In China and some other Asian countries that is not the case. So VW's factories in China need to produce good EVs, in Europe affordable hybrids. Tough call for VW, since they are not good at either.
For decades germany is pushing down on startups and puts all the money into the old big companies. Thats the payoff now.
German innovators moved to the US.
Why was it happened?
In the past, superior German engineering justified a higher labour cost. Now engineering from both Tesla and China (who has a low labour cost) has left German Engineering in 3rd or 4th or even 5th place. Of course, it is nearly impossible to tell union workers they must reduce their salaries to 50%, so the company then enters a death spiral and sheds customers. It is far from over and tariffs result in counter-tariffs.
I bought a used 2016 Dacia Sandero for £5.5k with 40k miles on the clock 6 month ago. Runs beautifully. Tell me why I should waste anymore.
Making mediocre cars and charging premium prices does NOT work anymore. Lower prices, cut costs, or go bankrupt.
Serves them right.
Horrible company.
It is very funny that the economist suggests subsidies for VW are needed when the EC just applied extra tariffs on Chinese manufactured cars. Am I the only one who thinks that is funny?
Nothing funny about self preservation
@@SK-kh2rs Nothing funny for German taxpayers who don't work at VW.
@@SK-kh2rs Certainly not saying anything about the fallout from the closures of factories. The issue is the fact politicians fail to understand the cost of their actions and just do what will win the next election.
Companies in Germany needs Russian energy to help their product price competitive ^_^
@@masakitonguba8919 Yes, taking the fossil fuel drug from a pusher and even when they knew it was bad, they continued to want more cheap fixes.
Not a single word about 2 elephants in the room: Nord Stream and Financing of Ukraine
Bravo for objective journalism 👎
There was no choice. If Germany did not tow the line then the US will sanction them too.
@@michaelnurse9089 It would be professional that DW mention this issue as this is the source of the problem
It’s very clear, the VAG group produces some of the best high end vehicles, and VW and Skoda were supposed to be sturdy, affordable and available to the people. However management has pushed really into higher end, lower quality for these brands. The basic golf now costs more than a yearly salary for most people. It’s . A . Golf
it is the management's failure. EU thought by banning HEV, they could stay ahead of Japanese competitors. They never saw that Chinese OEMs to become their competitors so soon.
Herbert Diess told Volkswagen this years ago and they refused to listen to him. Perhaps now they will listen, even if it is a bit late.
VW and German government need to lean into electric and not shy away from it. The longer they spurn the electric BEV vehicle the harder the crash will be.
That will not help on its own …
They are already doing this, but in China. They invested in Chinese ev maker Xpeng as well as setting up an ev research and development centre in Hefei China. They can't do all this in Germany because most of the ev innovations are happening elsewhere.
@@kamsunleong6648 BYD has 60 000 engineers. How many engineers are working on BEVs in Germany?
Just like Nokia doesn't want to turn to smartphones.
@@michaelnurse9089 Maybe 5 or 6 :)
Throwing billions in EVs that no one want....
Vw cars have become very expensive, even the small ones, vw polo starting at €22k, thats crazy, when a few years ago it was starting at around €15k, that’s 35% increase, no wonder people are not buying new cars.
Also the Vw electrics are barebones inside, all plastic with 4 inch screen for instruments panel, that’s for laughs.
whatever Germany does, there will be no change and they can not compete with the Chinese, the only chance is to stick to quality. Of course, the prices have increased so much, but why, the gas that Germany gave up from Russia today pays 3,4 times more, a worker in China his salary is five times lower, materials are much more expensive today due to various sanctions and the economic war, in addition, Germany does not help the economy, but they help other countries in the war with billions, and what we see today is that more and more companies are moving to the USA and it is a real miracle if and one company remains in Europe.. electric vehicles are just an excuse like the green agenda, because the real example is the USA, where the sale of electric vehicles is decreasing every year, which means that the Chinese are not a competitor, because their models with gasoline and diesel engines are far behind European and usa...or maybe I'm wrong because I'm not an expert, but what they are talking about electric vehicles and China, there is not a single proof in reality that these are the reasons, and if they are, how will it help them as well as those who moved companies to the USA, do the workers there work for less money, or it will help them in developing electric cars...
New Golf matches quality with Golf mark 1. What did you expect?
France and Italy have kept their prices relatively competitive while you raised them to the clouds. If they can do it you could've done that too. Greed and work ethic has came to bite you and get back what it gave you.
With a $30K vehicle to be considered low end or affordable, no wonder sales are slumped. Too much margin, VV and others. There is no way that vehicle costs more than $8K to build all in.
Since the pandemic the price of cars is gone ridiculous, for an ordinary working person to buy a new car is out of their grasp now, but then again food and energy prices are sky high also so it’s time for governments to reevaluate their ways of thinking.
VW sells cars in the EU only 3 times more expensive than in China, maybe they should be 5 times more expensive
Another BS comment
Nie. Vw sprzedaje w Chinach 3x taniej niż w Europie bo za wszelką cenę chce utrzymać udział w rynku ale tam nikt nie nabiera sie na mało innowacyjne i odstające technologicznie od rynku produkty.
@@LifeIsLife1978 Prodaju oni 3 x jeftiniji u Kini jer tamo nemaju EU komisiju pod kontrolom kao ovdje i cijelu EU radili budalama. Ali cijela GER ekonomija je prevaranstka, rado što žele jer EU imaju u džepu
let's not forget high energy prices due to self-inflicted sanctions.
actually from their report, the energy cost is doubled because of sanction on Russia
Putin warned this is an economy suicide many times, the european leaders didnt/dont believe
If they had kept and expanded their nuclear power base, and converting over gas-fire district heat to use nuclear power process heat and convert some more of the heat-only residential gas systems to heating+cooling heat pumps, then there'd be a no need for Russian and quite a chunk of other sourced gas to keep prices low. See France's power price vs Germany.
Here is Australia my last 2 cars were VW's. I was looking forward to driving an electric Polo or Golf.. or even an electric Beetle. To date, not a single VW EV has gone on sale here and there's zero talk of an electric beetle in the works, surely their most iconic design after the Kombi van. Speaking of which, the ID Buzz is supposed to start at $90,000 - $120,00AUD. That's CRAZY money.
In the USA, any Toyota is either in 'Build Phase' or 'in Transit'. The new car lots of Toyota dealerships are mostly empty. People take delivery directly from the delivery truck. My diehard VW fan friend dumped his ID4 and went with a Toyota.