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- cross-posted to:
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German carmaker warns of stagnation in the European sector amid news of deeper-than-expected action
The German carmaker Volkswagen is planning to shut at least three factories in its home country, lay off thousands of workers and cut pay by 10%, according to the company’s union.
The deeper-than-expected cuts come as the company faces weak sales and slow expansion in the electric vehicle (EV) sector amid tough competition from Chinese manufacturers.
“The board wants to close at least three factories in Germany,” the works council chief, Daniela Cavallo, told employees at VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg on Monday. Its remaining manufacturing sites will reduce capacity, she said, citing information provided by management.
As Europe’s top economy suffers a crisis in manufacturing and fears of mass unemployment, VW is aiming for a fundamental restructuring to cut costs. It had initially warned last month that it had the equivalent of two factories of extra capacity in Germany.
I think the delusion that fuels this insanity is western car companies understand the future is no longer defined by visions of the car but they can’t admit it. They can’t make cheap, reliable ev commuter cars because from their perspective that would be admitting the truth they can not accept to themselves.
I don’t even think this has to do with money, surely there will be big markets in ev vehicles long into the future, rather it is about something deeper, it is about refusing to participate in any future that doesn’t unquestionably place cars at the center of it.
To western car execs a simple, reliable compact electric commuter car isn’t a car, zero percent of them drive anything other than sports cars and massive trucks/suvs and they see one of the fundamental utilities of a car is to seperate oneself from the city of dirty working class people between your mansion and executive suite office (who would actually benefit most from said practical small electric commuter cars).
Eh. Especially because (at least European) car companies understand that public transport is a thing they’re focussing so damn much on upper market segments. “Commuter car” indeed does not feature in visions of the future, at least not prominently.
Right, they see the business of car sales as like horses for the rich and more crucially they see themselves as a luxury brand that associates itself with wealth via the inherent difficulty of owning and maintaining a large luxury car that excludes all but the rich. It is the same with Ralph Lauren and horses, polo in this case being analagous to the ridiculous high stakes driving fantasies luxury car commercials evoke.