VW News: Volkswagen's Electric Car Dreams Are Going To Be A Bit More Expensive

[William Maley]

Volkswagen put forth an ambitious plan to offer an electric version of each model it sells. The automaker set aside about 20 billion euros ($23 billion), but that will not be enough according CEO Herbert Diess.

“The burden for our company, such as the cost of bringing to market electric cars, will be higher than expected,” Diess said in a interview with Volkswagen's internal newsletter, obtained by Bloomberg.

“This is particularly so since some of our competitors have been making more progress.”

Diess didn't give a new figure in the interview, but did say the company needs to "reduce expenses more to be able to invest in future technology and weather crises".

Volkswagen has been working on improving its profitability since a 2016 labor pact and massive reorganization of its 12 brands. The Volkswagen brand has seen its profitability increase from 1.8 to 4.1 percent last year. But Diess said they need higher profits.

“We need higher profits to finance our future. Four percent is a minimum, 5 percent to 6 percent allow for some future investments and with 7 percent to 8 percent we’re crisis-ready.”

Source: Bloomberg (Subscription Required)

View full article

[G. David Felt]

To be expected and now they confirm what I had always suspected about VW, low profits even though they have Porsche.

[riviera74]

51 minutes ago, dfelt said:

To be expected and now they confirm what I had always suspected about VW, low profits even though they have Porsche.

Porsche and Audi and a few other luxury marques that DO NOT SELL in the same volumes as VW and Skoda.  Of course VW could just build all of their cars outside of Germany, but given that part of VW is owned by Lower Saxony, that probably will not happen.  Ever.

[daves87rs]

Going to be quite the struggle, sadly....

[ocnblu]

It makes little sense to spend so much money on something that people have shown only a modicum of interest in.

Edited September 16, 2018 by ocnblu