cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21371247
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 dunno if you follow car stuff much. Chip shortage during COVID affected how many cars could be made. Manufacturers saved them for high margin high value cars. Already there is a smaller market for them. Plus, charging infrastructure in some countries is behind to the point where a lot of people are sticking to petrol. That’s the wider picture.
On top of that VW made a really good EV platform and then screwed it up with a cheap interior, glitchy software, and frustrating laggy haptic buttons everywhere on cars that weren’t exactly cheap. Why bother with that when you can get a Kia Niro (as an example) with more features, a massive warranty, more range, better interior for the same or less money?
As a regular driver of a range of different EV through carsharing: Yes, VW are infuriatingly bad at controls, buttons and the likes.
It may sound petty but it’s really impacting driving negatively.
A car is a box on wheels that I only interact with through its controls. It ain’t petty to demand that those controls respond quickly and reliably.