They had it good when they were getting cheap energy from Russia now that's gone because they followed America to sanction Russia they lost the ability to get cheap energy which now makes manufacturing anything more expensive and even less competitive
As a German I will never buy another VW owned car again. They purposefully build in cheap plastic parts wich are still very expensive to repair. In some cases failure of said plastic parts will damage the whole engine after just barely reaching 100000km. They once knew how to build reliability but changed direction to make more profits.
Worked for a company who did part of the software in VAG cars, because up until Diess their software development was outsourced to lowest bidder. Software development for them is report status, project plan, reprioritize, rinse and repeat.... and only later worry about building something functional. Is more important to have something to blame for being late than actually doing the work.
Ad to it their cheap and nasty mechanical components and cheap engineering... Its a disaster of a company relying on their past image to sell low quality cars.
Interesting. I thought it was weird though as some German are the best software engineers in the world. They just split their time between high pay banking/government IT and indie gamedev.
55 years ago the Bugs were the most people cars in the US and I owned one and loved it. It is famoust to be unsafe and uncomfortable for many years. Volkswagen chose to do nothing. It open up opportunities to Japanese car makers. After I got out of college I bought a Japanese car and was stunned how advanced they were. I owned many Toyotas till today. They are super reliable and their services are first class.
I exclusively drove Ford cars/vans for 20 years until the clutch went on my last one at 40K miles and I got sick of the repair costs. I bought a 6-year old used Honda with 50K miles on it with no history of any repairs or failures. I've been driving it now for 4 years and have doubled the mileage and the only repair it needed in that time was a puncture repair. It feels like it'll run forever.
When VW Beetles were a dime a dozen and the novelty had long worn off, it was easy to look for something better. Now that good unmodified Beetles are becoming scarce, a new audience can appreciate them as a pastime and enjoy it differently. I once owned a '76 standard Beetle in that context and loved it. Nice driver. Kept it stock and never cared if it was allegedly unsafe or not.
14 годин тому
But the US also introduced crazy import taxes on German cars in order to "support" their own car manufacturers. Check how they made this insane law for these pickup-type cars some years ago... Now modern monster-sized cars are taxed less than a small, environmentally friendly European car... The weird fruits of government interventionism........
Let’s be honest with you, it isn’t EV’s killing the company. It’s the fact that Japanese and Korean car companies can get me a nicer car for cheaper than VW, Ford, GM, and Tesla. EV’s will be the future when it doesn’t cost consumers their kidneys to even buy a base model with a long range battery. Not to mention that outside of the main product mix of Tesla, most EV’s look stupid, underperform, and have overly expensive batteries that go up much sooner than traditional engines.
Korean car engines are junk. They cannot compete with the Japanese. KIA/Hyundai 4 cylinders are garbage. I would take a Ford over anything Korean. Japanese stuff is good but is not cheap. BMW makes the Toyo Supra. VW/Audi is the worst German brands for reliability in USA surveys. Mercedes is in the middle and BMW and Porsche are the most reliable. BMW is more reliable than Porsche. Germany's big problem is energy costs. Everything has to do with water and energy. They shut down their nuke powerplants and NATO blew up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines that was owned by Germany and Russia. Open borders is the other problem. This and the energy issue have made more and more Europeans, including the UK, poor. Europe is becoming a poor continent. Europe's wealth over the past 30 years has been argely due to cheap and reliable energy from Russia. This is not Russia fanboyism it is economic reality.
No actually it isn't the Japanese and Koreans who are hitting VW the most. I suspect you are an American so you haven't been swamped by the tsunami of Chinese EVs yet.
'SEAT' is pronounced 'Say at'. Top notch content as always. Whenever MBA's replace engineers, in engineering companies, things go south. Just an observation.
im pretty sure they're using an AI trained on WSMs voice to narrate, so "SEAT" is pronounced as "S E A T". Can also hear the AI with signatures like the classic "delve". I dont mind, it saves time for uploading
So true. What baffles me is if their degree is really that good then why not start their own business. They could make their own billion dollar company but no. They went and be a ceo in a well established company because their degree said they know better. 😂
@@itemushmush Holy moly what. This is the first time I didnt realize I was consuming AI generated content. I don't really know why but I have to say it DOES bother me ...
Wsm often has issues with everything other than American names, it's truly pathetic. When talking about some Japanese name much like Toyota, he just randomly said the name ending in "a" as ending in "ay". Not only was it nothing like well known japanese brands (Toshiba, Toyota) no English accent would ever properly read it like that in English either, unless they read the country as AmericAY.
I find it odd that people assume that filling an automobile with sensors, computers, video cameras, etc. and then tying it all to remotely controlled software is in any way sustainable. These modern cars are resource-intensive, prone to problems and glitches, too expensive, and are just a road to increased obsolescence.
The Volkswagen AG made €23 billion in operating profit last year.
14 годин тому
the more profit they make, the more people they fire. These big companies are run by lunatics. But also the German energy situation is making it impossible for German brands to be competitive, they can either reduce quality (and hope that nobody finds out... which works for a certain time and then, the company's reputation is ruined) or they can keep high quality products which will be so much overprized that nobody will buy them! Meanwhile EU-lunatics introduce C02 taxes, further killing our industry. So nobody should say there was nothing they COULD do - they could do a lot, but they don't WANT to do it. If you ask me, they just want to destroy Germany. I have no other explanation, looking at German politics over the last 10-15 years.
Am I the only one who thinks that German cars, Mercedes and BMW in particular, their modern cars are ugly? Modern German cars have become very ugly. It seems that they have forgotten what made us love German cars in the 80s and 90s. Since 2018, German cars have become more ugly every year, with the exception of Audi.
@@kc4276 The Chinese played with the Germans. The Chinese are the reason Germany changed the designs of their cars to be uglier. Then came the Chinese car companies and swept the market.
Crazy to see this video, i was just in Wolfsburg last September and i went on a factory tour and it was mind boggling, so huge! I was there also when the retrofit was going on and was able to see the MASSIVE space they were clearing out for EV only, it seemed like they were going all in! That town is built around the factory, will be very difficult on the economy if it closes, a Detroit like situation😢
Wolfsburgs factories are not up for debate. They are planning on closing some of their dozens and dozens of factories. As per usual on the internet, this channel has a tendency to over exaggerate for dramatic purpose
Little German pronunciation guide: an "ie" is also called a "long i". The "e" is not pronounced. The last name of Herbert Diess rhymes with the English word "lease".
Painful how the speaker stubbornly refuses to pronounce so many words properly. *Porsche* is spoken to rhyme with English *porch* rather than to rhyme with *Porsch-say.* Also drops the *e* at the end of *Blume* to rhyme with *bloom* rather than correctly with *Bloom-meh.* If this is indeed an AI speaker then it should be more than straightforward to train the system to pronounce correctly.
Small correction. The least worst scandal in history. The scandal was because they cheated the climate regulations which are a separate scam. So scamming a scam isn't really that bad is it?
There is nothing special about VW vehicles. They are built by accountants and it shows. The reliability of modern VW's is laughable - my local service manager did just that - laughed. Anyone familiar with German systems and software know just how cumbersome and difficult it can be, SAP is a prime example of the most unweildy software in the world. The problem for VW is its highly paid moribund management. Without a total change in their privileged European attitude VW is going under.
The closest thing to a car built by accountants is Toyota. In their own words: _Toyota Motor Corporation's Toyota Production System (TPS) is a way of making things that have become known and studied worldwide. It is based on the premise of making work easier for workers. The objective is to thoroughly eliminate waste and shorten lead times to deliver vehicles to customers quickly, at a low cost, and with high quality_
And yet, VW effectively giving up on in-house software development and outsourcing that to Xpeng and Rivian will end up dooming the company. Today cars are probably 80% software and 20% hardware. Without growing good in-house software engineering capabilities, VW are betting their fate company on 3rd parties. Which very rarely works right.
@@TestTest12332Germany simply doesn't have good software engineers on a mass scale. 🤷 All the best software engineers are in America and East Asia. VW was completely right in going to where the talent is.
Among other things, this is the "Curse of being #1 in sales". GM had the curse, then Toyota, then Volkswagen. It is not exactly due to being #1 in sales, it is due to the decisions that the company makes as they PUSH for number one.
nah, since they abandoned they precious combustion motors due to woke culture an politics. They are going to get clapped by others. Thats what happens when you adope woke culture. Your economy is destroyed and your country invaded
@@tadroid3858 clearly, your neighbours aren't mindless middle class consumers of mainstream media, which are a large proportion of the white European population
my problem with Volkswagen (and most other modern car makers) is they no longer make a small cheap car, the cheapest new Volkswagen (the Polo) is £21k in the past they all had compact (city) cars in the £10-12k price range as they move to follow the trend of big "SUV" cars and other similar bulky but not much more spacious vehicles.
As a German software engineer and previous scientist working at a German university, I can give deep inside into the problems Volkswagen has w.r.t. software engineering: In short - it's a historische problem. The major bosses and employees from Volkswagen come from an era, where a car is nothing but a mechanical system, making use of many electrical and some embedded (software) systems. To this day software engineers and the field of software engineering in general is considered a "minor add on" to building a car. However, this is a dated naive view at best. Modern cars are extremely complex (software) embedded systems, where the complexity of the software has outpaced the complexity of of the mechanical system by far. Other vehicle manufactures - especially American and Japanese ones - know this. Especially Tesla is know for their great software capabilities within their cars. But the Volkswagen corporation still treats software like the add on your t no longer is.
There's nothing bad a car can drive properly due to its mechanical proprieties. Most problem arise when it's electronics that need to cover the deficits and failures of hardware. Not to say that any add-on electronics should work properly which is not allways the case.
Germany (and Europe in general) is also just seriously crap at software engineering in general. 🤷 There's a reason 90% of the world's software development happens in America & East Asia. That's where the talent is.
Can you explain a bit more on how and when the gold mine of Chinese market has run dry for Volkswagen? I mean, China is the only thing that keep VW Group in black since the first Volkswagen Santana hit the Chinese showroom in 1979. What happened?
US and EU were smug sominating the Chinese car market fro decades earning billions every year but when the reverse is trues these bullshitters are full of excuses.
Its interesting that in india, the largest car companies are japanese, korean and of course, indian. European and american car makers are minor players, always on the verge of closing. Overpriced, underspeced, unreliable and not completely customized for rh driving and indian roads.
Both Japanese and Korean automakers have understood Indian market and are dynamic in their offerings. European car makers expect everyone to sell their kidney to buy their cars without using their brains. Indian car buyers care about reliability, fuel efficiency, longevity, cost of ownership for a reasonable price point. The cost of servicing a German car makes any car owner cry here. The servicing will cost entire year's fuel costs when it comes to German cars. It looks like German car makers care only about how fast their cars go on autobahn neglecting all else.
Germany Pumped China full of VW cars and no one complained now that theyre losing market share to BYD and other chinese makers they complaining and want tariffs on chinese auto makers.
Because China didn’t know how to build cars. Seems they learned a thing or two in all of these joint ventures that they forced onto Western automakers.
have you heard the phrase an eye for an eye, an ear for an ear? China has huge tariffs on imported cars and force foreign automaker into partnerships, joint venture and local production. When China starts producing and exporting cars to those countries, you expect it to go barrier and restriction free? Only China gets a one-free-way? What a naive thinking. China got the trade war and trade restriction it deserved. If china doesn't like it, either drop the tariffs on foreign cars or go do partnership, joint venture and local production like it forced on foreign cars.
Also a disadvantage for VW: 20% of VW is owned by the German state of Lower Saxony, with a special law in place that they can veto every decision. VW pays well above average salaries for its factory workers and because of the government involvement and strong unions, firing workers is very hard and very expensive. And Volkswagen has with 600 000 employees (>100 000 in Germany) more than any other automobile company.
Anyone who worked with a German company knows how difficult it is to fire a German worker. I cannot imagine what it takes to close a union-run factory...
My first car i had just over 50 years ago did 30 miles to the gallon. Everything on it i could fix. Secondhand 8 years old was £100. We have been taken for a ride in the last 10 years.
An acquaintance bought ID3. Missed work a couple of times since the car would not even start, lol. Poor quality, overly dependent on suppliers, know-how given to Chinese EV brands and letting them drive them out of the market. All EU brands are now screwed...
Germany must be the country with the greatest difference between the competency of the general population and with the Germans working in management. It's like if you can do nothing with your hands or you can't reason like a logical person you automatically strive to become a leader.
Is VW's software problem similar to Japan's software problem? Japanese products always focus on hardware, thus software is often an afterthought. Japanese companies rarely pay much attention to software, so software engineers/IT/programmers get lower pay. You have never heard of too many big software companies from Japan and Germany.
Video games are some heavy duty softwares and Japan pumps those out like crazy. For example Konami's Fox engine for the latter Metal Gear Solid games is a software engineering marvel.
Compared to the US Germany has a rather small IT sector, but there is one company standing out: SAP. IT Jobs get paid well in Germany, but nowhere as good as in the US.
My Corolla 2017 has a lot of gimmicks, Adaptive Cruise Control, Infotainment w. touch screen, Lane-keeping assist, Pre-Collision System, Automatic High Beams, Road Sign Assist, Automatic Parking Assist. So far no problems.
Crazy idea, how about designing a simple, reliable car that has a decent size 4 to 6 cylinder engine and offers value for money and not unreliable turds with components designed to fail and then be replaced with ridiculoussly overpriced parts like 7,000 euro headlights...
@@wedmunds I realize you were kidding, but actually they can. Just like German cars were before year 2000. You have good quality basic models at reasonable price, but they dont come with all the bells and whistless. People who are willing to pay "50K" get the same basic car, but with leather seats, more this, more that, more powerful engine and whatnot. Also, by selling reasonably priced cars, they could actually sell cars.... And since german brands have lost user trust completely, they have to lower prices anyway. When you make china quality, china pricing is all you can ask.
@@TechTusiast but that's their business model. Sell fewer cars, at premium prices. They end up making more profit at the expense of the middle class not having cars.
@@wedmunds Not feasible. If they sell less units, unit cost increases and profit margin is reduced. Also there are so few well-off people that there simply are not enough people to sell cars to, unless you just make exotic specialty vehicles.
@@TechTusiastNow when many people struggle financially the need for luxury and showing off has decreased. So it would be a good time for VW to perhaps relaunch or facelift som older simpler models ans sell them for cheap. The cheapest VW in my country is like 22k Euro (T-cross) when you walk into the dealership. And its way worse quality than a Polo from 2009 that you at that time could buy for 9000 Eur. Of course inflation hit companies hard, but a mega corpo like VW shoudl find effective ways and innovate to be able to produce cheaper and better.
Their cars used to be simple, reliable and ran on diesel. But now- Volkswagen is overpriced, overcomplicated and more expensive to fix in the US than a domestic car. Its a no brainer from a consumer prospective why Volkswagen needs austerity measures to stay solvent.
They could start with his own executive package and by pulling out of China. For those who think that a partnership with the Chinese is reciprocal, it's not.
VW's vision... 🤩 1. Go woke with electric vision and branding ✅ 2. Employ pointless middle managers and pay them exorbitant salaries ✅ 3. Employ / Award deals to "designers" who produce vehicle designs that no longer capture the essence of VW ✅ 4. Reduce quality with inferior plastic components ✅ 5. Get rid of factory workers who had German engineering / strength in their heart ✅ 6. (Not unique to VW) Turn your vehicles into laptops on wheels - stick a big screen on the dash and remove buttons ✅ 7. Price your peoples car outside of the reach of "the people" ✅ Reality.... 💀
When i think of Volkswagen, i think of electrical problems. I know it was many years ago, but i had many friends who's taillights and interior lights stopped working and needed expensive repairs due to an rrror with the manufacturer.
My shitty breakdown prone Audi will beg to differ. German cars used to be synonymous with quality, but that’s not the case anymore. In this Economy, people don’t have time or money to buy only a brand. Cars need to be reliable. My car is only two years old and It’s already been to the shop 7 times. As soon as I can, I’m exchanging my current one for a Japanese brand.
No kidding. I bought a brand new VW passat a few years ago, I had nothing but problems since in the first month. But the dealer was worse, pretending like nothing wrong with it. Never another VW again. Just 5 years later bought Camry, not a single issue so far. What I noticed is that Toyota dealer is always full with people, and the VW dealer is just empty, real empty, all you see is depressing people workers looking for a loser to get in.
Daily reminder, that Germany conducted Rugen Project with all-electric cars back in the 90s. Results were mixed, but the automakers were ready to continue developing and researching and believed they could provide up to 500000 e-cars by the year 2000. However, german government denied subsidies for that and automakers dropped EV development programs completely. Now, it's the year 2024, cheap chinese EVs are flooding the markets everywhere and german automakers are on the brink of bankruptcy.
Not surprising at all .Expensive cars made with cheap parts , cheap energy and cheap labor that was Volkswagen policies till 2022.The problem all of this now is gone and European customers preferred to buy second hand cars or asian made one's which have longer support dates then the cars produced locally.
Just like in the former usa the car manufacturers make overpriced cheaply made unreliable cars that aren't what people want or can afford.People want simple reliable affordable transportation.
China is slowly but surely going to lead in several areas - EV cars , Naval shipbuilding, commercial airlines , drones , high speed trains , space, solar , home electronics. Why because their home market for these is the largest in the world and they have shown they can totally dominate. They have been manufacturing Apple products for years , so they have all the experience of tooling etc. They have the largest high speed rail network , also 5G network. The largest EV , solar , drone producer. They built their own space station. They are going 5G plus which is 10X faster than 5G. Once they make a breakthrough in chip production in 3nm , then it’s game over. They can make/build faster and cheaper than anyone in high tech.
German here (VW driver and shareholder). At least in Germany VW has actually made it to the top when it comes to EV sales, even outdoing Tesla. But probably not in the rest of Europe yet. Also, nobody here is worried about VW going under or about some plants being closed down. There is some fearmongering in the media, but that's just normal "background radiation" that nobody with a brain cares about. The CEO and management also alwasy have to vastly overblow how tough the issues are so that they don't get public backlash from the government, Unions and public as a whole when they fire people. firing even a single person is considered a capital offence in Germany, hence the fearmongering.
Yeah. Well Germany is about the size of the State of Oregon, so establishing the supporting infrastructure is just a "little" bit easier than a country the size of the US. Plus, EVs are expensive and hate to tell you, that electricity you use comes from fossil fuels.
VW's profits for 1H2024 was €10bn. Nobody is worried about VW. There is only one automaker in the world that makes more money than VW. And all German and Japanese automakers are losing marketshare in China, so it's not a VW-only issue. I have a strong suspicion that VW is playing chess. You can also call it black mail. They want something from the German government. I thought the same when Stellantis announced it will close an EV factory in Brussels. If I had to guess European automakers are quietly asking unrealistic policies on European EV mandates to be revised/updated. Insufficient consumer demand for EVs strongly implies that none of the automakers will be able to meet EV mandates current in place.
@@jackwalker9492 Maybe in the US but not in Germany and especially most of Europe. Besides EV's do have the potential to be charged with more and more renewables over time while ICE will always be 100% fossils. Not the right place ton argue EVs but if you think anything but EVs will be the future you'll most probably be surprised.
When VW loses in China, it means it could lose market share in many places in the world, outside of western world. For example, in Africa, South America or Asia. Luxurious brands like Porsche may survive as 200k per piece for a car can be sold with 250k or more. (due to increased cost). But VW is hopeless in the long term.
$200B debt pile will probably bankrupt them. Which is what they deserve. They are too big and too slow to adapt and will be disrupted by smaller and progressive companies.
One thing about Germany is the lack of good discount deals on anything, at most you can get like a laughable $600 on a new VW $40,000 car, so of-course people will choose a much cheaper Chinese car. If they offered good discounts they could sell ton of cars instead of keeping them unsold for years....
Summary from a German: Why would I buy the VW when for that model I could either get a Skoda for the 95% same quality for a much lower price (great reliability) or an Audi which is also the same car but higher quality for a much higher price (prestige). The VW-version is the worst compromise, but too expensive for what it delivers.
What can I say? I am German, I used to own a Golf once. I will never own a Volkswagen for my rest of my life again. And I wouldn`t recomment to anyone else. Boring, interior looks like made in the early 80ies, rusty. Its just rubbish. And in the end the malfunction of cam chain endet its life. 🤮
They no longer own BUGATTI. I am on my 3rd VW. 2 GTIs and now a TIGUAN. HERBERTS name is not pronounced DEE YES. It is pronounced DICE. Let’s see what happens with their partnership RIVIAN.
Cars just aren't desirable to many young people. I have more friends with children, houses and even second homes than those that own cars - even those who have cars rarely use them. When given the option there are just so many other, better, things to spend money on. The car is dead.
@@UndercoverScambaiter Anywhere that isn't the US. If you don't build things so far apart cars become unnecessary. And even if you do, when everyone is going to the same place there's probably a better method to get them there. The idea of spending money for the privilege of sitting in traffic is so unappealing I can't even put it into words. 🤣
You must live in a very urbanist bubble, pretty much everyone I know owns a car or lives in a household with a car, people just aren't buying new cars anymore
@@blob22201 Sounds like you live in an undeveloped rural bubble with no amenities or connections. Meanwhile those of us that live in settlements (even small towns) that have existed for more than 100 years, unsurprisingly, have the things we need to live... Nearby.
There are hundreds kinds of fishing reels.. but I found having one high quality fishing reel .. works for me.. lasting me for over 20+ years , upgrading my older fishing reels as needed.. Same for my autos..
That would be hard to do that as half of the board is occupied by the representatives from the trade unions and the German state of Lower Saxony owns 20% of Volkswagen AG. The state government mostly sides with the trade unions.
Volkswagen build quality is very poor. German quality in general has declined rapidly in the last 15 years. Even their engineering has become mediocre.
I traded my ford 2013 mondeo for a 2022 vw passat at a vw dealership. Everything was good for two months until the abs light, tire pressure light and esp light appeared. The dealer took 3 weeks to get it sorted. A month later I was driving and a warning light for engine overheating came on - the coolant hose popped off because of the flimsy clip. Everything is made of cheap plastic. I will never purchase a vw again.
It's almost like manufacturers were way too aggressive with their EV goals and are now desperately trying to course correct and stop hemmoraging money.
@@harat-xwb Diesel emissions regulations are the by far biggest scam ever inflicted on normal people. The government literally banned the most economic and reliable cars.
Yeah and still all Diesel engines by Volkswagen were better for the environment than all American cars. Basically for gasoline engines there a no restrictions but for Diesel extremely high ones? Sounds to me that American regulators knew American companies cant build a decent Diesel and decided to help them get rid of competition.
@@riemenscheider You are missing the point. Regulations may be wrong, they may be unfair. But you cannot fake things and deceive everyone to circumvent those rules. I am not American and I don't support them, but I know that they are very harsh to (financial) deceptions and they cannot tolerate it (See Elisabeth Holmes, Sam Bankman-Fried, etc). If I did business with them, I would not even think about what VW did.
Volkswagen is like a dinosaur with a complicated management structure, and that is their main issue. They should restructure their management structure, which is almost impossible for them because nobody would like to lose their power in the company.
Former VW chairman’s name is DIESS pronounced Dees not Diaz , I don’t usually comment on stuff like that but it stood out like a sore thumb through the video .
Germany is a militarily occupied client state of the US, hence coerced into destroying its own cheap source of energy(Nordstream) which made it possible to be competitive. Now that its gone with intended consequence(by US) of hollowing out German industry, there's no other alternative than pivoting to China if Germany is to survive.
The Sanctions against Russia and blowing up the Nord stream pipeline was most effective against the German economy. That in turn has effected the EU. The European economy can't survive on expensive commodities. That is one of the reasons why VW is closing down in Germany. They want to relocate in Russia if the EU allow them. Germany should leave the EU.
Energy prices are already lower, the dependency on Russia was a expensive mistake but Germany is still the 3rd biggest Economy in the world. And it exports massively within the EU, not just cars. Leaving the EU would be a economic downfall and Germany also defacto controls it. Russia on the other hand only relies on natural resources with economy smaller than Italy, limited skilled workforce and political instability caused by Putins wars. So no advantage moving there
Serves them right, they've been trading on their 70s and 80s reputation for reliability and quality for decades. In reality their cars are poorly engineered and overly complicated junk.
Another example showing how useful most well-paid executives are in any challenging enough environment.
Money that would be more useful in the engineering department
If they do not pay those execs can start other businesses or move to a competitor.
@@truth6242and?
Better than causing the company to close.
@@truth6242 That would be good for them, since they'd be siphoning off money from the competitors instead lmao
Volkswagen is not about "people car" anymore because of Overpriced with cheap plastic and low reliability
High cost, low quality. Wonder where the difference is going?
Don't forget the fibbing about performance.
@@floxy20 everyone did that
They had it good when they were getting cheap energy from Russia now that's gone because they followed America to sanction Russia they lost the ability to get cheap energy which now makes manufacturing anything more expensive and even less competitive
@@waichungsham1578 Volkwagen AG made €22.6 billion in operating profit last year, despite higher energy costs.
As a German I will never buy another VW owned car again. They purposefully build in cheap plastic parts wich are still very expensive to repair. In some cases failure of said plastic parts will damage the whole engine after just barely reaching 100000km.
They once knew how to build reliability but changed direction to make more profits.
I read somewhere that these plastics were mandated by the EU to be recycled plastic hence the unreliability.
Not to mention they betrayed us all with the diesel gate. They can go bankrupt for all I care, all they care about is profits anyway.
Right, now let's see Paul Allen's VW.
@@lvhdmya4807 My friend from bmw said they're really good at material engineering and plan the plastic to last literally until the warranty period.
@@lvhdmya4807 Clearly not
Ironic that they can figure out a software hack for emissions on the dynamo but can’t figure out how to build a real product
Like the kid in school who spends more time trying to cheat than study legitimately. 😂
They failed in the software in newer cars, too. For many buyers the weakest part.
They never did software, bosch made that cheat software for VW...
@@jonathanwieringa8808Bosh made the host Hardware, it was VWs software
tbf depending on the subject, this can be wax more interessting
Worked for a company who did part of the software in VAG cars, because up until Diess their software development was outsourced to lowest bidder. Software development for them is report status, project plan, reprioritize, rinse and repeat.... and only later worry about building something functional. Is more important to have something to blame for being late than actually doing the work.
Ad to it their cheap and nasty mechanical components and cheap engineering... Its a disaster of a company relying on their past image to sell low quality cars.
Interesting. I thought it was weird though as some German are the best software engineers in the world. They just split their time between high pay banking/government IT and indie gamedev.
@filippxx
Yup i knew it was the fuckin jeets.
I'd bet a thousand dollars it's the sane with everything GM.
@@harmhoeks5996 theyre often too pedantic and whatever the opposite of pragmatic is to achieve meaningful results within timeframe
Yes and my all time favourite, using Cobol databases for company software in 2021.
Fuck touchscreens give me back my knobs!
All the tech the manufacturers are piling on is just asking for failures and hack vulnerabilities.
I LIKE KNOBS. 😊
There are aftermarket knobs you can add to Tesla
Men like knobs!
@@CZAR-OF-SARCAZM HEY
55 years ago the Bugs were the most people cars in the US and I owned one and loved it. It is famoust to be unsafe and uncomfortable for many years. Volkswagen chose to do nothing. It open up opportunities to Japanese car makers. After I got out of college I bought a Japanese car and was stunned how advanced they were. I owned many Toyotas till today. They are super reliable and their services are first class.
I exclusively drove Ford cars/vans for 20 years until the clutch went on my last one at 40K miles and I got sick of the repair costs. I bought a 6-year old used Honda with 50K miles on it with no history of any repairs or failures. I've been driving it now for 4 years and have doubled the mileage and the only repair it needed in that time was a puncture repair. It feels like it'll run forever.
When VW Beetles were a dime a dozen and the novelty had long worn off, it was easy to look for something better. Now that good unmodified Beetles are becoming scarce, a new audience can appreciate them as a pastime and enjoy it differently. I once owned a '76 standard Beetle in that context and loved it. Nice driver. Kept it stock and never cared if it was allegedly unsafe or not.
But the US also introduced crazy import taxes on German cars in order to "support" their own car manufacturers.
Check how they made this insane law for these pickup-type cars some years ago... Now modern monster-sized cars are taxed less than a small, environmentally friendly European car... The weird fruits of government interventionism........
Let’s be honest with you, it isn’t EV’s killing the company. It’s the fact that Japanese and Korean car companies can get me a nicer car for cheaper than VW, Ford, GM, and Tesla.
EV’s will be the future when it doesn’t cost consumers their kidneys to even buy a base model with a long range battery.
Not to mention that outside of the main product mix of Tesla, most EV’s look stupid, underperform, and have overly expensive batteries that go up much sooner than traditional engines.
Korean car engines are junk. They cannot compete with the Japanese. KIA/Hyundai 4 cylinders are garbage. I would take a Ford over anything Korean. Japanese stuff is good but is not cheap. BMW makes the Toyo Supra. VW/Audi is the worst German brands for reliability in USA surveys. Mercedes is in the middle and BMW and Porsche are the most reliable. BMW is more reliable than Porsche.
Germany's big problem is energy costs. Everything has to do with water and energy. They shut down their nuke powerplants and NATO blew up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines that was owned by Germany and Russia.
Open borders is the other problem. This and the energy issue have made more and more Europeans, including the UK, poor. Europe is becoming a poor continent. Europe's wealth over the past 30 years has been argely due to cheap and reliable energy from Russia. This is not Russia fanboyism it is economic reality.
❤️👏👏
No actually it isn't the Japanese and Koreans who are hitting VW the most. I suspect you are an American so you haven't been swamped by the tsunami of Chinese EVs yet.
Chinese cars are the future
I know a lot of people who have switched from VW to French cars, they seem to be doing a lot better than their German counterparts.
'SEAT' is pronounced 'Say at'. Top notch content as always. Whenever MBA's replace engineers, in engineering companies, things go south. Just an observation.
And Xpeng is pronounced "Schiaopeng" as far as I'm aware.
just ask Boeing
im pretty sure they're using an AI trained on WSMs voice to narrate, so "SEAT" is pronounced as "S E A T". Can also hear the AI with signatures like the classic "delve". I dont mind, it saves time for uploading
So true. What baffles me is if their degree is really that good then why not start their own business. They could make their own billion dollar company but no. They went and be a ceo in a well established company because their degree said they know better. 😂
@@itemushmush Holy moly what. This is the first time I didnt realize I was consuming AI generated content. I don't really know why but I have to say it DOES bother me ...
Seat is actually spoken in one word like an American would speak “SAY-AT”
Herbert Diess pronunciation seems wrong. It shouldn't sound mexican, but german
Yeah it’s a word not an acronym
"say-ut"
And Diess isn't "Dee-esse" but just 'Dees'
Wsm often has issues with everything other than American names, it's truly pathetic. When talking about some Japanese name much like Toyota, he just randomly said the name ending in "a" as ending in "ay". Not only was it nothing like well known japanese brands (Toshiba, Toyota) no English accent would ever properly read it like that in English either, unless they read the country as AmericAY.
I find it odd that people assume that filling an automobile with sensors, computers, video cameras, etc. and then tying it all to remotely controlled software is in any way sustainable. These modern cars are resource-intensive, prone to problems and glitches, too expensive, and are just a road to increased obsolescence.
Idiotic comment
Worse most of these automakers aren't really good at developing usable software
Government demand.
@@yulusleonard985What Govt forced them to put in touchscreens?
@@gikigill788 There's something called NCAP and you cant sell your car below certain ratting. To reach 3 to 5 stars you need all those electric.
Paying out 4,5 billion euros on dividends. crying 5 months later u make 4,5 billion euros loss.
The Volkswagen AG made €23 billion in operating profit last year.
the more profit they make, the more people they fire. These big companies are run by lunatics.
But also the German energy situation is making it impossible for German brands to be competitive, they can either reduce quality (and hope that nobody finds out... which works for a certain time and then, the company's reputation is ruined) or they can keep high quality products which will be so much overprized that nobody will buy them! Meanwhile EU-lunatics introduce C02 taxes, further killing our industry. So nobody should say there was nothing they COULD do - they could do a lot, but they don't WANT to do it. If you ask me, they just want to destroy Germany. I have no other explanation, looking at German politics over the last 10-15 years.
Am I the only one who thinks that German cars, Mercedes and BMW in particular, their modern cars are ugly? Modern German cars have become very ugly. It seems that they have forgotten what made us love German cars in the 80s and 90s. Since 2018, German cars have become more ugly every year, with the exception of Audi.
No, I also think they're really ugly.
It’s because they changed their design language to suit the Chinese market.
@@kc4276 The Chinese played with the Germans. The Chinese are the reason Germany changed the designs of their cars to be uglier. Then came the Chinese car companies and swept the market.
@@kc4276 Nonsense
@@captives6479 cope
Crazy to see this video, i was just in Wolfsburg last September and i went on a factory tour and it was mind boggling, so huge! I was there also when the retrofit was going on and was able to see the MASSIVE space they were clearing out for EV only, it seemed like they were going all in! That town is built around the factory, will be very difficult on the economy if it closes, a Detroit like situation😢
Wolfsburgs factories are not up for debate. They are planning on closing some of their dozens and dozens of factories. As per usual on the internet, this channel has a tendency to over exaggerate for dramatic purpose
Little German pronunciation guide: an "ie" is also called a "long i". The "e" is not pronounced. The last name of Herbert Diess rhymes with the English word "lease".
Painful how the speaker stubbornly refuses to pronounce so many words properly. *Porsche* is spoken to rhyme with English *porch* rather than to rhyme with *Porsch-say.* Also drops the *e* at the end of *Blume* to rhyme with *bloom* rather than correctly with *Bloom-meh.*
If this is indeed an AI speaker then it should be more than straightforward to train the system to pronounce correctly.
See also Familie, Spaniel, Materie, Indien, Serie, Medien...
Did you skip over one of the worst scandals in modern history with diesel gate?
One of the worst 🤣🤣🤡🤡
Worst? Fucker, all polution metrics are bull
Small correction. The least worst scandal in history. The scandal was because they cheated the climate regulations which are a separate scam. So scamming a scam isn't really that bad is it?
It wasn’t a big deal in europe
@@odavis1364 yeah it was. There is a reason why Germany pulled the excuitives back from American and refused to extradite them.
There is nothing special about VW vehicles. They are built by accountants and it shows. The reliability of modern VW's is laughable - my local service manager did just that - laughed. Anyone familiar with German systems and software know just how cumbersome and difficult it can be, SAP is a prime example of the most unweildy software in the world. The problem for VW is its highly paid moribund management. Without a total change in their privileged European attitude VW is going under.
The closest thing to a car built by accountants is Toyota. In their own words:
_Toyota Motor Corporation's Toyota Production System (TPS) is a way of making things that have become known and studied worldwide.
It is based on the premise of making work easier for workers. The objective is to thoroughly eliminate waste and shorten lead times to deliver vehicles to customers quickly, at a low cost, and with high quality_
And yet, VW effectively giving up on in-house software development and outsourcing that to Xpeng and Rivian will end up dooming the company. Today cars are probably 80% software and 20% hardware. Without growing good in-house software engineering capabilities, VW are betting their fate company on 3rd parties. Which very rarely works right.
@@TestTest12332Germany simply doesn't have good software engineers on a mass scale. 🤷 All the best software engineers are in America and East Asia. VW was completely right in going to where the talent is.
Among other things, this is the "Curse of being #1 in sales". GM had the curse, then Toyota, then Volkswagen.
It is not exactly due to being #1 in sales, it is due to the decisions that the company makes as they PUSH for number one.
They had a previous CEO that wanted to do this years ago.... and they sacked him! Now they have it comming their way....
If they can just hold on for five more years they'd be eating from the upcoming WW3 contract 😅
Back to their roots!
nah, since they abandoned they precious combustion motors due to woke culture an politics. They are going to get clapped by others. Thats what happens when you adope woke culture. Your economy is destroyed and your country invaded
😳☠️"peoples-wagon" said that guy in 1932
All going nicely; according to plan.
Could be a lot sooner than that
Nokia was once the biggest phone manufacturer in the world, undisputed giant. But then iPhone was announced.
It sounds like VW needs to start building cars that today's consumer wants and can afford. EV mandates are killing western auto manufacturers.
Then turn the pressure to your governments.
Most people I know want EVs, just not overpriced low quality EVs like the ones VW are offering.
@@marcvb3364 Everyone I know wants nothing to do with any plug-in unless it's a golf cart. Hybrids? Hell, yes, but no EVs.
@@tadroid3858
clearly, your neighbours aren't mindless middle class consumers of mainstream media, which are a large proportion of the white European population
@@tadroid3858 Hybrids are the worst of both worlds. Guess people's preferences vary from country to country then.
Too many engineers on a ladder trying to change a ceiling bulb.
Time is tough now for consumers, we only need normal, cheap and reliable cars to go to work
EXACTLY.
Just buy a 1993 E-Class.
I wish the auto makers would see this! We don't need more advanced tech or bigger trucks! Just safe, simple, reliable transportation.
@@agnesg just buy an used car. Plenty of them out there.
@@agnesgwell that's not what Chinese consumers want. They want technology in their cars and that's what EVs provide especially those made in China.
my problem with Volkswagen (and most other modern car makers) is they no longer make a small cheap car, the cheapest new Volkswagen (the Polo) is £21k in the past they all had compact (city) cars in the £10-12k price range as they move to follow the trend of big "SUV" cars and other similar bulky but not much more spacious vehicles.
As a German software engineer and previous scientist working at a German university, I can give deep inside into the problems Volkswagen has w.r.t. software engineering: In short - it's a historische problem.
The major bosses and employees from Volkswagen come from an era, where a car is nothing but a mechanical system, making use of many electrical and some embedded (software) systems.
To this day software engineers and the field of software engineering in general is considered a "minor add on" to building a car.
However, this is a dated naive view at best. Modern cars are extremely complex (software) embedded systems, where the complexity of the software has outpaced the complexity of of the mechanical system by far.
Other vehicle manufactures - especially American and Japanese ones - know this. Especially Tesla is know for their great software capabilities within their cars. But the Volkswagen corporation still treats software like the add on your t no longer is.
There's nothing bad a car can drive properly due to its mechanical proprieties. Most problem arise when it's electronics that need to cover the deficits and failures of hardware.
Not to say that any add-on electronics should work properly which is not allways the case.
Germany (and Europe in general) is also just seriously crap at software engineering in general. 🤷 There's a reason 90% of the world's software development happens in America & East Asia. That's where the talent is.
If VW built cars more like Toyota instead of like Stellantis then VW wouldn't be closing plants .
Toyota has only barely acceptable car lineage for Europe.
Germany relied on Chinese market too much and too long.
and they also decided to bash China at the same time.
Can you explain a bit more on how and when the gold mine of Chinese market has run dry for Volkswagen?
I mean, China is the only thing that keep VW Group in black since the first Volkswagen Santana hit the Chinese showroom in 1979. What happened?
US and EU were smug sominating the Chinese car market fro decades earning billions every year but when the reverse is trues these bullshitters are full of excuses.
There are smaller hurdles in china to get an electricncar registered than a fuel car
Germany relied on Russian resources too much and too long.
I bought Volkswagen shares yesterday :D
BRUH
your cheeks are going to be destroyed by the market
Market boutta have some cake
Smart move!
Glückwunsch du Noob, viel Spaß mit 30% Verlust
Its interesting that in india, the largest car companies are japanese, korean and of course, indian. European and american car makers are minor players, always on the verge of closing. Overpriced, underspeced, unreliable and not completely customized for rh driving and indian roads.
Both Japanese and Korean automakers have understood Indian market and are dynamic in their offerings. European car makers expect everyone to sell their kidney to buy their cars without using their brains. Indian car buyers care about reliability, fuel efficiency, longevity, cost of ownership for a reasonable price point. The cost of servicing a German car makes any car owner cry here. The servicing will cost entire year's fuel costs when it comes to German cars. It looks like German car makers care only about how fast their cars go on autobahn neglecting all else.
India is extremely minor economically, even poor africans are saying how ridiculously underdeveloped India is.
Germany Pumped China full of VW cars and no one complained now that theyre losing market share to BYD and other chinese makers they complaining and want tariffs on chinese auto makers.
Because China didn’t know how to build cars. Seems they learned a thing or two in all of these joint ventures that they forced onto Western automakers.
Free market is only great when it benefits me! $$$
@@marcvb3364 China is not a free market. They’re getting a taste of their own medicine, and evidently they don’t like it.
When capitalists can't compete, They don't accept free trade and market economy anymore, They will be more protectionist than communist
have you heard the phrase an eye for an eye, an ear for an ear? China has huge tariffs on imported cars and force foreign automaker into partnerships, joint venture and local production. When China starts producing and exporting cars to those countries, you expect it to go barrier and restriction free? Only China gets a one-free-way? What a naive thinking. China got the trade war and trade restriction it deserved. If china doesn't like it, either drop the tariffs on foreign cars or go do partnership, joint venture and local production like it forced on foreign cars.
The investors want share buybacks and executives want bonuses.
Layoffs don't do that
Nobody thinks of the poor executives and investors!
moustache man is very angry
Deiter Zeche? 😉
Also a disadvantage for VW: 20% of VW is owned by the German state of Lower Saxony, with a special law in place that they can veto every decision.
VW pays well above average salaries for its factory workers and because of the government involvement and strong unions, firing workers is very hard and very expensive. And Volkswagen has with 600 000 employees (>100 000 in Germany) more than any other automobile company.
They’re old and stuck in their ways
1:17 SEAT is not an acronym, it's a word pronounced: "sea-at" or "see-at"
It is an acronym and stands for 'Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo'.
@@Pierluigi_Di_Lorenzo I stand corrected.
@@onsokumaru4663 You are correct w. r. t. the pronunciation.
Anyone who worked with a German company knows how difficult it is to fire a German worker. I cannot imagine what it takes to close a union-run factory...
This will be a huge political fight with a very compromised outcome for VW in the end. They won’t be able to cut what is necessary.
Why are you circlejerking on Tesla. Tesla isnt even that good, especially compared to German standards.
Tesla makes cheap interior and exterior, German cars make cheap mechanicals, take your pick it's all shit.
My first car i had just over 50 years ago did 30 miles to the gallon. Everything on it i could fix. Secondhand 8 years old was £100. We have been taken for a ride in the last 10 years.
An acquaintance bought ID3. Missed work a couple of times since the car would not even start, lol. Poor quality, overly dependent on suppliers, know-how given to Chinese EV brands and letting them drive them out of the market. All EU brands are now screwed...
or just create beautiful cars again like the mk7 golf was and watch sales increase
Correction, Porsche owns the controlling shares of Volkswagen. Porsche Automobil Holding SE owns 31.4% of equity and 53.3% of votes in Volkswagen.
Germany must be the country with the greatest difference between the competency of the general population and with the Germans working in management. It's like if you can do nothing with your hands or you can't reason like a logical person you automatically strive to become a leader.
VW is shutting down right now their Audi factory in Brussels, Belgium. VW is now trying to sell their Brussels factory.
Is VW's software problem similar to Japan's software problem? Japanese products always focus on hardware, thus software is often an afterthought. Japanese companies rarely pay much attention to software, so software engineers/IT/programmers get lower pay. You have never heard of too many big software companies from Japan and Germany.
Video games are some heavy duty softwares and Japan pumps those out like crazy. For example Konami's Fox engine for the latter Metal Gear Solid games is a software engineering marvel.
@@noelnyunting2431 that's the only exception.
@@noelnyunting2431 developing games vs stable OS on vehicles that cannot fail are two different things
Compared to the US Germany has a rather small IT sector, but there is one company standing out: SAP. IT Jobs get paid well in Germany, but nowhere as good as in the US.
My Corolla 2017 has a lot of gimmicks, Adaptive Cruise Control, Infotainment w. touch screen, Lane-keeping assist, Pre-Collision System, Automatic High Beams, Road Sign Assist, Automatic Parking Assist. So far no problems.
Lets not also forget... VW sell 9+ million cars year. That is like double of what Tesla has ever sold in their entire history.
I would rather be in the Tesla ship. VW is busy sinking
its going to lose the 4 million it sells in china,
@@siamcharm7904 and so is BMW, Toyota, Tesla etc
Crazy idea, how about designing a simple, reliable car that has a decent size 4 to 6 cylinder engine and offers value for money and not unreliable turds with components designed to fail and then be replaced with ridiculoussly overpriced parts like 7,000 euro headlights...
But then they can't sell it for 50k
@@wedmunds I realize you were kidding, but actually they can. Just like German cars were before year 2000. You have good quality basic models at reasonable price, but they dont come with all the bells and whistless. People who are willing to pay "50K" get the same basic car, but with leather seats, more this, more that, more powerful engine and whatnot.
Also, by selling reasonably priced cars, they could actually sell cars.... And since german brands have lost user trust completely, they have to lower prices anyway. When you make china quality, china pricing is all you can ask.
@@TechTusiast but that's their business model. Sell fewer cars, at premium prices. They end up making more profit at the expense of the middle class not having cars.
@@wedmunds Not feasible. If they sell less units, unit cost increases and profit margin is reduced. Also there are so few well-off people that there simply are not enough people to sell cars to, unless you just make exotic specialty vehicles.
@@TechTusiastNow when many people struggle financially the need for luxury and showing off has decreased. So it would be a good time for VW to perhaps relaunch or facelift som older simpler models ans sell them for cheap.
The cheapest VW in my country is like 22k Euro (T-cross) when you walk into the dealership. And its way worse quality than a Polo from 2009 that you at that time could buy for 9000 Eur. Of course inflation hit companies hard, but a mega corpo like VW shoudl find effective ways and innovate to be able to produce cheaper and better.
Their cars used to be simple, reliable and ran on diesel. But now- Volkswagen is overpriced, overcomplicated and more expensive to fix in the US than a domestic car. Its a no brainer from a consumer prospective why Volkswagen needs austerity measures to stay solvent.
They could start with his own executive package and by pulling out of China. For those who think that a partnership with the Chinese is reciprocal, it's not.
VW's vision... 🤩
1. Go woke with electric vision and branding ✅
2. Employ pointless middle managers and pay them exorbitant salaries ✅
3. Employ / Award deals to "designers" who produce vehicle designs that no longer capture the essence of VW ✅
4. Reduce quality with inferior plastic components ✅
5. Get rid of factory workers who had German engineering / strength in their heart ✅
6. (Not unique to VW) Turn your vehicles into laptops on wheels - stick a big screen on the dash and remove buttons ✅
7. Price your peoples car outside of the reach of "the people" ✅
Reality.... 💀
Embracing EV's is only "going woke" if you're an anti-technology Luddite ignoramus. 🤷
Me watching this 1 month after buying my first VW EV. 😢
When i think of Volkswagen, i think of electrical problems. I know it was many years ago, but i had many friends who's taillights and interior lights stopped working and needed expensive repairs due to an rrror with the manufacturer.
Great video. Elon wasn’t kidding when he suggested in 2017 to put Volkswagen’s A team on EVs.
in india, vw parts is 3x, 4x and sometimes 5x of the price of hyundai , suzuki, Nissan and others.
VW in 200 billions debt, they need goverment bailout to pay it. Effective finance managers killed company. Common thing today. 😢
My shitty breakdown prone Audi will beg to differ.
German cars used to be synonymous with quality, but that’s not the case anymore. In this Economy, people don’t have time or money to buy only a brand. Cars need to be reliable. My car is only two years old and It’s already been to the shop 7 times.
As soon as I can, I’m exchanging my current one for a Japanese brand.
Volkswagen had to close factories before today. Mostly because the British and Americans would send "parts" by airmail to them.
Vhut?
@@samsonsoturian6013 The vhut were between 500 and 1,500 pounds of ordinance.
@@samsonsoturian6013Air biombing during ww2
The pronunciation of brands and names is terrible in this video.
I had a 1966 VW Beatle. Ran great.
No kidding. I bought a brand new VW passat a few years ago, I had nothing but problems since in the first month. But the dealer was worse, pretending like nothing wrong with it. Never another VW again. Just 5 years later bought Camry, not a single issue so far. What I noticed is that Toyota dealer is always full with people, and the VW dealer is just empty, real empty, all you see is depressing people workers looking for a loser to get in.
Making cars that gradually fewer people want?
Daily reminder, that Germany conducted Rugen Project with all-electric cars back in the 90s. Results were mixed, but the automakers were ready to continue developing and researching and believed they could provide up to 500000 e-cars by the year 2000. However, german government denied subsidies for that and automakers dropped EV development programs completely. Now, it's the year 2024, cheap chinese EVs are flooding the markets everywhere and german automakers are on the brink of bankruptcy.
Not surprising at all .Expensive cars made with cheap parts , cheap energy and cheap labor that was Volkswagen policies till 2022.The problem all of this now is gone and European customers preferred to buy second hand cars or asian made one's which have longer support dates then the cars produced locally.
Just like in the former usa the car manufacturers make overpriced cheaply made unreliable cars that aren't what people want or can afford.People want simple reliable affordable transportation.
VW swallowed so many brands and now it is throwing up.
China is slowly but surely going to lead in several areas - EV cars , Naval shipbuilding, commercial airlines , drones , high speed trains , space, solar , home electronics. Why because their home market for these is the largest in the world and they have shown they can totally dominate. They have been manufacturing Apple products for years , so they have all the experience of tooling etc. They have the largest high speed rail network , also 5G network. The largest EV , solar , drone producer. They built their own space station. They are going 5G plus which is 10X faster than 5G. Once they make a breakthrough in chip production in 3nm , then it’s game over. They can make/build faster and cheaper than anyone in high tech.
Digitalization of the car is the problem... mainly the evil ideas taking ownership of the car and monetize it. Too much greed, too little business...
Yeah. Also the additional electric stuff is more likely to break and makes repairing harder.
German here (VW driver and shareholder).
At least in Germany VW has actually made it to the top when it comes to EV sales, even outdoing Tesla. But probably not in the rest of Europe yet.
Also, nobody here is worried about VW going under or about some plants being closed down. There is some fearmongering in the media, but that's just normal "background radiation" that nobody with a brain cares about. The CEO and management also alwasy have to vastly overblow how tough the issues are so that they don't get public backlash from the government, Unions and public as a whole when they fire people. firing even a single person is considered a capital offence in Germany, hence the fearmongering.
Yeah. Well Germany is about the size of the State of Oregon, so establishing the supporting infrastructure is just a "little" bit easier than a country the size of the US. Plus, EVs are expensive and hate to tell you, that electricity you use comes from fossil fuels.
VW's profits for 1H2024 was €10bn. Nobody is worried about VW. There is only one automaker in the world that makes more money than VW. And all German and Japanese automakers are losing marketshare in China, so it's not a VW-only issue.
I have a strong suspicion that VW is playing chess. You can also call it black mail. They want something from the German government. I thought the same when Stellantis announced it will close an EV factory in Brussels. If I had to guess European automakers are quietly asking unrealistic policies on European EV mandates to be revised/updated. Insufficient consumer demand for EVs strongly implies that none of the automakers will be able to meet EV mandates current in place.
Imagine being such a shameless bootlicker 🤡
@@jackwalker9492 Maybe in the US but not in Germany and especially most of Europe. Besides EV's do have the potential to be charged with more and more renewables over time while ICE will always be 100% fossils. Not the right place ton argue EVs but if you think anything but EVs will be the future you'll most probably be surprised.
When VW loses in China, it means it could lose market share in many places in the world, outside of western world. For example, in Africa, South America or Asia. Luxurious brands like Porsche may survive as 200k per piece for a car can be sold with 250k or more. (due to increased cost). But VW is hopeless in the long term.
$200B debt pile will probably bankrupt them. Which is what they deserve. They are too big and too slow to adapt and will be disrupted by smaller and progressive companies.
Seat: rhymes with Fiat.
Porche: pronounced Por-shuh
Nope, Fiat is pronounced "Fee at", and SEAT is pronounced "Seh at".
The electric van isnt here yet
Seen them for a couple years in the Netherlands already
I owned a diesel Rabbit in the 80s. I swore I would never own another Wolkswagen ever again due to the prices of parts. I've never looked back.
@WallStreetMillenial
1. Are you East Asian?
2. Do you write one hundred percent of your video-essay script?
One thing about Germany is the lack of good discount deals on anything, at most you can get like a laughable $600 on a new VW $40,000 car, so of-course people will choose a much cheaper Chinese car. If they offered good discounts they could sell ton of cars instead of keeping them unsold for years....
Summary from a German: Why would I buy the VW when for that model I could either get a Skoda for the 95% same quality for a much lower price (great reliability) or an Audi which is also the same car but higher quality for a much higher price (prestige).
The VW-version is the worst compromise, but too expensive for what it delivers.
What can I say? I am German, I used to own a Golf once. I will never own a Volkswagen for my rest of my life again. And I wouldn`t recomment to anyone else. Boring, interior looks like made in the early 80ies, rusty. Its just rubbish. And in the end the malfunction of cam chain endet its life. 🤮
They no longer own BUGATTI. I am on my 3rd VW. 2 GTIs and now a TIGUAN. HERBERTS name is not pronounced DEE YES. It is pronounced DICE. Let’s see what happens with their partnership RIVIAN.
Cars just aren't desirable to many young people.
I have more friends with children, houses and even second homes than those that own cars - even those who have cars rarely use them.
When given the option there are just so many other, better, things to spend money on.
The car is dead.
Interesting. Which country?
@@UndercoverScambaiter Anywhere that isn't the US. If you don't build things so far apart cars become unnecessary. And even if you do, when everyone is going to the same place there's probably a better method to get them there.
The idea of spending money for the privilege of sitting in traffic is so unappealing I can't even put it into words. 🤣
You must live in a very urbanist bubble, pretty much everyone I know owns a car or lives in a household with a car, people just aren't buying new cars anymore
@@blob22201 Sounds like you live in an undeveloped rural bubble with no amenities or connections.
Meanwhile those of us that live in settlements (even small towns) that have existed for more than 100 years, unsurprisingly, have the things we need to live... Nearby.
You didn't go AI did you? This video sounds weird.
His voice was always weird. Young American professional voice
I‘ve been driving Audis and VWs for 10 yrs now, in Germany, they‘re getting more expensive and shittier with every new generation
There are hundreds kinds of fishing reels.. but I found having one high quality fishing reel .. works for me.. lasting me for over 20+ years , upgrading my older fishing reels as needed..
Same for my autos..
That would be hard to do that as half of the board is occupied by the representatives from the trade unions and the German state of Lower Saxony owns 20% of Volkswagen AG. The state government mostly sides with the trade unions.
Volkswagen build quality is very poor. German quality in general has declined rapidly in the last 15 years. Even their engineering has become mediocre.
false
True.
I traded my ford 2013 mondeo for a 2022 vw passat at a vw dealership. Everything was good for two months until the abs light, tire pressure light and esp light appeared. The dealer took 3 weeks to get it sorted. A month later I was driving and a warning light for engine overheating came on - the coolant hose popped off because of the flimsy clip. Everything is made of cheap plastic. I will never purchase a vw again.
Darwin’s theory of natural selection 🤷♂️🤷♂️
Exactly, boohoo figure it out idiots
It's almost like manufacturers were way too aggressive with their EV goals and are now desperately trying to course correct and stop hemmoraging money.
Isn't this the company who committed fraud in exhaust emissions, aka Dieselgate?
Who tf cares about that sh*t?
@@albinklein7680 Honest citizens, for example me.
@@harat-xwb Diesel emissions regulations are the by far biggest scam ever inflicted on normal people. The government literally banned the most economic and reliable cars.
Yeah and still all Diesel engines by Volkswagen were better for the environment than all American cars. Basically for gasoline engines there a no restrictions but for Diesel extremely high ones?
Sounds to me that American regulators knew American companies cant build a decent Diesel and decided to help them get rid of competition.
@@riemenscheider You are missing the point. Regulations may be wrong, they may be unfair. But you cannot fake things and deceive everyone to circumvent those rules.
I am not American and I don't support them, but I know that they are very harsh to (financial) deceptions and they cannot tolerate it (See Elisabeth Holmes, Sam Bankman-Fried, etc). If I did business with them, I would not even think about what VW did.
Volkswagen is like a dinosaur with a complicated management structure, and that is their main issue. They should restructure their management structure, which is almost impossible for them because nobody would like to lose their power in the company.
Former VW chairman’s name is DIESS pronounced Dees not Diaz , I don’t usually comment on stuff like that but it stood out like a sore thumb through the video .
There's no possibility to tell when VW will be able to offer cars that people would like to buy.
And this is the main condition of VW recovery.
They need to open borders again for foreign scientists and doctors, just like 9 years ago.
Getting a driving license is equally challenging
Germany is a militarily occupied client state of the US, hence coerced into destroying its own cheap source of energy(Nordstream) which made it possible to be competitive. Now that its gone with intended consequence(by US) of hollowing out German industry, there's no other alternative than pivoting to China if Germany is to survive.
The Sanctions against Russia and blowing up the Nord stream pipeline was most effective against the German economy. That in turn has effected the EU. The European economy can't survive on expensive commodities. That is one of the reasons why VW is closing down in Germany. They want to relocate in Russia if the EU allow them. Germany should leave the EU.
Energy prices are already lower, the dependency on Russia was a expensive mistake but Germany is still the 3rd biggest Economy in the world.
And it exports massively within the EU, not just cars. Leaving the EU would be a economic downfall and Germany also defacto controls it.
Russia on the other hand only relies on natural resources with economy smaller than Italy, limited skilled workforce and political instability caused by Putins wars. So no advantage moving there
The Volkswagen AG made €23 billion in operating profit last year. Without Nord Stream.
Electrification of VW becomes Electrocution of itself
They were happily exporting to other countries but cant take competition in their home turf.
It's not S-E-A-T, it is pronounced "Seh-at".
would be ironic if many thousands of VW employees themselves joined the campaign to boycott sells to Russia.
Serves them right, they've been trading on their 70s and 80s reputation for reliability and quality for decades. In reality their cars are poorly engineered and overly complicated junk.
I never saw any Beetles on the road , a few but that was rare .
They have the biggest name in the automotive industry.. Porsche, they just need to return making great cars and SUVs.