VW CEO Diess has demanded according to Handelsblatt in a Supervisory Meeting to cut 30,000 jobs
'He spoke about his concern for the future of the company. Costs were not right against the competition. Diess described how he had already experienced the crash of a site once before'
The reason for this is among other things the reorganization and electrification of the Group
According to the Handelsblatt, the supervisory board members were caught off guard by Diess' statement - and subsequently protested "vigorously"
30k is 15% of VW Brand
VW will shrink
Wile 30,000 lay-offs for VW may sound a lot it is likely just the first step in a downwards spiral handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/au…
A VW Speaker commented
'There is no question that VW must also address the competitiveness of its main plant in Wolfsburg'
Media speak even of every 4th job with respect of the 30k lost jobs
Shock waves in Wolfsburg
The information was intentionally presented and leaked by CEO Diess before VW presents quarterly results for a reason
Prepare for poor VW results in Q3
An insider said that the portrayal is "completely exaggerated. In the meeting in question, Diess had in fact "drawn up a worst-case scenario in a half-sentence" in the event that the transformation toward e-mobility failed and the central Group project Trinity also became a flop.
According to the Handelsblatt, Diess sees himself driven above all by competitor Tesla
At the supervisory board meeting, the CEO is said to have described Tesla as the "new North Star" of the auto industry
Insider:
"Diess is deliberately working with the biggest scare"
'The course must be set "now to prevent a similar crisis," than in 1993 Diess had said in the supervisory meeting on September 24
Isn't it slightly too late to prevent the crisis? 🤔
Union IGM statement as a reply to Herbert Diess approach in the supervisory board
"What is clear is that cutting 30,000 jobs is not debatable." If such extreme scenarios were to be seriously discussed it would be a "frontal attack on the transformation of our industry."
VW Worker Council statement
"a reduction of 30,000 jobs is absurd and baseless"
Turns out Herbert Diess has a different opinion
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According to BI sources Herbert Diess and Brand CEO Ralf Brandstätter called Thursday all 120 top managers in Wolfsburg together for a crisis meeting
Diess stated that compared to Tesla and Chinese manufacturers VW is too expensive, slow and with low productivity not competitive
Now it is a matter of taking up the "fight against Grünheide" Diess said according to BI sources
If everything remains as it is, Diess insists, VW will no longer be competitive
Diess "We have a great responsibility for this site. We have to embrace the new competition."
CEO Brandstätter stated
'It is urgently necessary that a new course is set in Wolfsburg. Future competition with Tesla's new Gigafactory will be brutal. The electric car pioneer sets new standards in car production (...)'
"In the future, the combustion engine will no longer play a major role in brand communication. We have to convince people that electromobility is the right way to go."
How about changing the company instead of the communication?
When asked about the Audi Motto "Vorsprung durch Technik" (ahead through technology)
Wortmann replied "We have thought about if we want to keep it"
The Audi Marketing head continued
"But the claim is 50 years old, historically charged. Now we're adapting that in marketing. It used to be about higher, faster, further. Today it's about sustainability and contributing to society. Technology is about solving problems."
BMW plans to offer a Remote Software Upgrade (RSU) for the iX next March, which will add Maneuver Assistant to the iX, allowing it to self-retrace a route of up to 200 meters previously recorded by the driver
200 meters? 🤨
The assistant is intended for the last few meters into or out of tight parking spaces or on the lot
BMW also wants to offer the so-called "Functions on Demand" for the first time, i.e. to enable HW already installed in the vehicle for subsequently offered SW functions. In the iX, these include active cruise control with stop-and-go function & steering and lane departure warning
Special thanks to @FullyChargedDan and for publishing a critical article that some other media outlets I offered it to didn't want to publish.
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An ID 3 caught fire on Saturday in Groningen NL. The driver took the charging plug out of the car and it started smoking. She quickly got her child out of the car & got herself to safety but the flames spread quickly
Note that EVs burn less often than ICE
Even though we haven't learned why the e-tron GT burned down while charging in Munich lately or the Taycan burned down while charging in the US, I find it somehow suspicious that VW Group vehicles seem to prefer to burn when plugged into a charger 😕
VW Speaker "We cannot make a statement on the cause of this fire until we have thoroughly investigated the vehicle and the circumstances"
We never learned why the Taycan burned in the USA or the e-tron in Munich.
Why should we learn why the ID.3 burned in the Netherlands? 🙄