Status: 08/21/2020 1:20 p.m..
Sixty years ago today, Volkswagen transformed into a stock corporation. The car manufacturer is now facing the greatest challenge in its history: the leap into electromobility. Hopes rest on the ID.3, which is to become the Volks-E-car.
From Notker Blechner, boerse.ARD.de.
The future begins in Saxony – at least for VW. In Zwickau, the former birthplace of the cult brand Horch, the greatest upheaval in the history of the VW group is taking place. Thousands of employees there manufacture the first large-scale electrical series with the name ID, which should finally bring about the breakthrough in electric cars.
As the first representative of the model family, the ID.3 has been produced since the end of last year.
An electric car for the masses.
The name is program. ID.3 means the third idea of a Volkswagen. After the Beetle and the Golf, it will be the Volks-Elektro-Wagen.
With a starting price of less than 30,000 euros and a range of up to 550 kilometers, it should attract the general public. Until now, pure electric vehicles with a long range have been too expensive for many consumers. “We want to offer affordable, emission-free mobility suitable for everyday use for everyone,” says VW core brand manager Ralf Brandstätter.
The start was a bit bumpy, however. The VW hopefuls had to struggle with plenty of software problems. Instead of the summer as originally planned, the ID.3 is now due to hit the market in September.
Production starts stuttering.
The first 30,000 pieces have already been sold, it is http://news-today.fun/on-which-platforms-can-you-watch-f1/ said from Wolfsburg. How many “Volksstromer” will roll off the assembly line in Zwickau this year is uncertain. Originally, around 100,000 of the ID.3 and the ID.4 SUV variant were to be produced.
Now it should be half at best. “A little less than 50,000 ID.3s will be built this year,” believes car analyst Jürgen Pieper from the Metzler bank.
After the start of stuttering, the VW model should then pick up speed next year. For 2021, analyst Frank Schwope from NordLB expects half a million VW e-cars to be sold. The Wolfsburg-based company has set itself ambitious long-term goals.
VW wants to become the market leader in electromobility by 2024. In 2025, 1.5 million e-vehicles made by VW are to be produced.
“2021 at eye level with Tesla”
This makes VW the biggest “Tesla hunter”. When it comes to the question of when the Wolfsburg-based company will overtake or overtake the e-car pioneer from California, the experts disagree. Economist Schwope sees VW in terms of the number of units “on par with Tesla” as early as next year. Metzler analyst Pieper is more likely to believe that it will take two to three years before VW is at the Tesla booth.
Tesla still has a strategic advantage with the central software and the production of its own batteries.
The Tesla race to catch up is costing Europe’s largest automaker dearly. He is investing a good 33 billion euros in the expansion of e-mobility by 2024. VW is already the most heavily indebted group in the world. According to a study by asset manager Janus Henderson, the Wolfsburg-based company has amassed a mountain of debt of 192 billion dollars.
Competitor Toyota has $ 54 billion less debt.
The billions in investments must pay off. Volkswagen does not have several options for alignment, this time the shot has to be right, demanded Wolfgang Porsche, representative of the owner families, at the dazzling presentation of the ID.3 at the IAA 2019 in Frankfurt.
Diess: Corona accelerates e-mobility.
Herbert Diess, VW.
VW boss Herbert Diess is optimistic. “Electromobility is being accelerated by Corona,” he said recently in an interview. In fact, the Wolfsburg-based company was able to sell more electric vehicles in the first half of the year than in the whole of last year. Around 10,000 e-ups and e-golfs were sold.
Of course, the classic models with diesel and gasoline engines still make up the majority of VW’s business. Vehicles with combustion technology still account for more than 95 percent of sales, says analyst Schwope. The fuel-guzzling SUVs are particularly popular.
The central bread and butter model is the Golf. The new generation, the Golf 8, is currently selling very slowly. Due to software deficiencies, significantly fewer units were built than planned.
The corona crisis has completely slowed the car manufacturer. In the first half of the year, VW slipped into the red due to weeks of production stoppage and closed car dealerships. The Wolfsburg suffered an operating loss of 1.5 billion euros. The turning point should come in the second half of the year.
Management is aiming for a positive result for 2020 if there is no second wave.
Power struggle between Diess and Osterloh.
Volkswagen works council chairman and supervisory board member Bernd Osterloh.
The losses, the problems with the Golf 8 and the delays with the ID.3 are causing unrest in Wolfsburg. An open power struggle broke out between VW boss Diess and works council boss Bernd Osterloh. According to the Bild “newspaper, Osterloh is said to have even worked on a” coup attempt “against Diess, but denies this. In the meantime, both have made peace again.
Diess was backed by the supervisory board. However, he was partially ousted.
In the course of the power struggle, there was a big shift in chairs in the VW empire. Half a dozen senior management posts were filled. So, among others, Skoda boss Bernhard Maier and Traton boss Andreas Renschler had to leave.
So much unrest in the group is unusual, says car analyst Pieper.
From car to digital tech company?
CEO Diess had already tightened the tone at the beginning of the year. When converting, Volkswagen is too slow, he warned VW executives. If the company doesn’t act faster, it could face a fate like Nokia – the Finnish mobile phone giant fell by the wayside when it came to switching to smartphones. Diess demanded a radical restructuring of his management team “from a car company to a digital tech company”.
The car has a future only as a mass-market internet device – comparable to an iPad on wheels.
Portrait of Jürgen Pieper.
Industry experts see VW on the right track. No German car company is moving as fast as VW when converting to electromobility. Analyst Pieper: “VW is more consistent than BMW and Daimler, the group has larger resources and deeper pockets.” Apparently the emissions scandal, which cost the group billions of euros and damaged its image, had something good: it pushed VW’s e-car strategy.
