Automotive News: VW got woke, now must layoff thousands (Update)
Porsche Says People Still Want Gas Cars: ‘There’s a Clear Trend’
In early 2022, Porsche said electric vehicles would account for more than 80% of total annual sales by the decade’s end. That goal is still in place, although the company added an asterisk next to 2030, saying it will depend on how customers react to EVs. In a Q&A session with the press during the conference call pretraining to Q3 2024 sales, the German brand admitted things aren’t going as planned.
Chief Financial Officer Lutz Meschke said the situation in China is “challenging” for Porsche and all the European luxury brands. In the United States and Europe, Porsche sees a “slowdown in the BEV transition and the customer demand is not satisfying overall.” He mentioned that “a lot of customers in the premium/luxury segment are looking in the direction of combustion engine cars. There’s a clear trend in this direction.”
In early 2022, Porsche said electric vehicles would account for more than 80% of total annual sales by the decade’s end. That goal is still in place, although the company added an asterisk next to 2030, saying it will depend on how customers react to EVs. In a Q&A session with the press during the conference call pretraining to Q3 2024 sales, the German brand admitted things aren’t going as planned.
This is the part of the Q&A that got really interesting. Meschke said Porsche will give people what they want by refreshing its gas-fueled and plug-in hybrid cars. The executive team is giving the R&D department the flexibility to work on multiple powertrain solutions, including “new combustion-engined derivatives of electrified cars.” More at Motor1.com
October 28, 2024
VW went woke and bought into the Green New Scam causing the company to lose millions of dollars. They now plan to shut at least three factories in Germany, lay off tens of thousands of staff and shrink its remaining plants in Germany the carmaker’s works council head said on Monday.
VOLKSWAGEN BRAND CEO THOMAS SCHAEFER:
“We are not earning enough money with our cars currently (Editor’s Note: Because they are losing their shirt on every electric car they sell). At the same time, our costs for energy, materials and personnel have continued to rise. This calculation cannot work in the long term.
“So we have to get to the root of the problem: we are not productive enough at our German sites, and our factory costs are currently 25-50% higher than we had planned. This means that individual German plants are twice as expensive as the competition.
“In addition, we at Volkswagen are still processing many tasks internally that the competition has already outsourced more cost effectively. This means that we cannot continue as before. We must quickly find a joint and sustainable solution for the future of our company.”
STIFEL ANALYST DANIEL SCHWARZ:
“The plans go far beyond market expectations. I believe this reflects a unique combination of unfavorable factors: competition in China, softening of demand in Europe, especially for BEVs (battery electric vehicles), and also stricter regulation.
“Of course, unions will disagree with the proposed measures. However, I find encouraging that unions seems to largely agree with the analysis that VW needs to take significant action.
“I think strikes are likely: one side asks for 7% wage increase, the other side offers >10% wage cut plus factory closures.
“It will not be easy to find a compromise. It will be interesting to see whether unions will limit strikes to VW brand factories (where it might hurt VW less) or also expand this to other brands, like Porsche, where the damage would be more significant.”