from NoTricksZone
Author: P Gosselin, October 30, 2024
Volkswagen is facing major financial challenges after a politically driven push into electric vehicles… plans to close at least three German plants…a move unprecedented in the company's history… Thousands of jobs will disappear!
Anti-car Green Party activist, liberal arts college dropout board of supervisors!
The news is really bad for VW, and now the powerful IG Metall engineering and metalworkers union has hinted at a strike to stop job cuts. Additionally, the company hopes to cut more than $4.3 billion in costs
Hat tip: shareholders.
Entering the field of electric vehicles was misguided
But don’t start feeling sorry for the masses. These problems are largely the fault of incompetent managers and politicians themselves.
First, the German state of Lower Saxony, where Volkswagen is headquartered in Wolfsburg, owns about 20% of Volkswagen. Secondly, in the late 2010s, Volkswagen began to seriously promote the production of electric vehicles and launched the ID series of electric vehicles. The growing focus on electric vehicles is largely politically driven by factors such as increasingly stringent emissions standards and over-optimism about future demand for electric vehicles.
Electric vehicle sales stagnant, factories closed
However, Volkswagen’s electric car sales have since taken a turn for the worst. Electric cars are not popular in Germany. In the first half of 2024, its global sales were approximately 317,200 vehicles, down from the same period in 2023 (321,600 electric vehicles). The future of electric car sales now looks bleak: Volkswagen has just announced the closure of its Audi Brussels factory in Belgium, which mostly builds electric cars. The decision was made due to lower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles and is expected to take effect in February 2025.
Green Party anti-car activist, university dropout on Volkswagen Supervisory Board!
If you think Volkswagen's ownership by a green-leaning country has created problems for the company's management, take a look at who sits on the company's supervisory board: julia willy burger, Ms. Hamburg is a German politician from the Alliance 90/Green Party who also serves as Deputy Minister and President of Lower Saxony and Minister of State for Education and Culture.
Now let’s take a look at her credentials: According to her resume, Ms. Hamburg was educated in Hannover, studying political science, German linguistics, and then philosophy at the University of Göttingen.
She gave up all her studies without earning a degree. Additionally, she is an anti-car activist who travels by bicycle. She had neither industrial management experience, financial expertise, nor automotive engineering knowledge. That man was one of Volkswagen's top executives. No joke!
So don't be surprised if Volkswagen gets wiped out by competitors in the next few years.
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