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Volkswagen is sinking

After the CEO of VW Oliver Blume stated that Volkswagen plans to shut down some plants in Germany, for the first time, it shocked the workers of this German manufacturer. The plan also includes abolishing job guarantees that have been in place for more than 30 years to cut costs. In many ways this was a question of not if, but when.

For a long time, VW has been struggling with huge supply chain constraints and increasingly strong competition, primarily from Chinese companies such as BYD, which is destroying the competition with low costs and state subsidies. Also, Chinese companies produce superior EVs in particular. Volkswagen has the capacity to produce 14 million cars per year, and in 2023 they produced only 9 million cars.

The workers are against this plan of the company, but so are the minority shareholders in the VW group. The head of the works council, Daniela Cavallo, said: “This calls into question VW itself, and thus the very essence of the group.” We will defend ourselves fiercely. As long as I’m on the council, VW won’t be closing plants!”

Oliver Blume stated that the VW Group is in a difficult situation and that it requires difficult decisions: “The European automotive industry is in a very challenging and serious situation. The economic environment is further difficult and new suppliers are pushing into Europe. In addition, Germany in particular lags further behind in terms of competitiveness. In such an environment, we as a company must be consistent.”

Also, in autumn wage talks are kicking off, but what we might see at the end of the day is workers agreeing to zero or very little pay increases.

Source: Reuters

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Goodbye Renault Twingo

At the Paris Motor Show on 5 October 1992, Renault unveiled its new city car, the Renault Twingo. So far, three generations of this model have arrived on the market, and the successor to the current electric version is planned to be presented in 2026.

After three decades of presence on the market, Renault has decided to withdraw this car from some of the most important European markets. The model is still present in France, although it will soon say goodbye to its home market. In Spain, Germany or Switzerland, it is no longer configurable, although there are still some models on sale from stock orders from the last few months.

The third generation of this city car arrived on the market in 2014 with two versions of gasoline engines (0.9 L H4Bt turbo I3 and 1.0 L H4D I3). However, for several years now, it has only been available as an electric.

At the end of last year, the French firm announced that the Twingo would continue to live on as the leader of the new wave of small city cars. The new Twingo will use a smaller version of the AmpR platform that was launched on the electric R5. Although it was previously said that the French company would develop this project with Volkswagen, this will not happen. According to the latest information, Renault is in talks with a Chinese partner.

Source: Renault

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Goodbye Renault Twingo
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Volvo faced the reality

A few years ago, car manufacturers announced that electric cars are the future, and they took big steps towards the electrification of their cars, some even completely removing cars with internal combustion engines from their offer. However, production problems and a drop in demand for EVs showed that everything was too fast. This has prompted some manufacturers to abandon their plans, such as Volvo, which has a new plan. They hope that by the end of the decade, 90 percent of all sales will be electric and hybrid PHEVs.

There are three main reasons for changing the decision and facing reality. First, the Swedish automaker believes that the rate of development of infrastructure for electric cars is slower than expected. The second reason is the abolition or reduction of subsidies for these cars by several countries, and the third reason is attributed to the introduction of very high tariffs for certain markets.

Volvo has announced that it will continue to produce cars with internal combustion engines after 2030, but they will have mild hybrid systems and will be produced in limited series. Also, the plan is for PHEVs and electric cars to account for between 50 and 60 percent of total sales by the end of this year. This target is too ambitious if we consider the sales of the last few months when fully electric cars accounted for only 26 percent of the total sales.

It should be noted that Volvo’s long-term plan is to become completely carbon neutral by 2040.

Source: Volvo

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