Volkswagen Group makes 10 million vehicles per year with twice as many people as its neck-and-neck competitor Toyota — with predictably meager results. To boost profits, the German carmaker wants to do the job with 30,000 fewer people, the company announced Friday in presenting a ”future pact” with its unions. Why did the unions say ja? Because the plan is not quite the “cutting to the bone” that Germany’s Handelsblatt and Seeking Alpha are making it out to be. At closer inspection, the plan signals who’s in charge in Wolfsburg: The unions.
Archives for November 2016
Volkswagen Unions And Electric Cars Win In Deal That Will See Elimination Of 30,000 Jobs
Friday morning car news roundup, November 18, 2016
Top News:
- Tesla’s move beyond cars official with $2 billion SolarCity deal – Automotive News: Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors officially moved beyond cars and became a clean-energy company Thursday, as shareholders overwhelmingly approved the acquisition of SolarCity.
- VW’s Long Road Ahead – Bloomberg: But even after those measures take effect, the automaker will still have a huge number of employees compared to the number of cars it sells.
- BMW, Baidu joint project on self-driving cars breaks down – Reuters: Wang Jing, the head of autonomous car development at Baidu, told Reuters the company was now using cars from Ford’s Lincoln in its U.S. testing, …
- Danish high court convicts, fines Uber driver for lacking taxi permits – Reuters: REUTERS/Toby Melville/Illustration … Court said he lacked a permit to drive as an occupation and his car was not registered or licensed as a taxi.
Thursday morning car news roundup, November 17, 2016
Top News:
- VW, Didi in talks for high-end car-hailing service in China – Reuters: Volkswagen AG said on Thursday it is in talks with China’s Didi Chuxing to set up a high-end ride-hailing service, while also announcing ambitious sales goals for electric and hybrid vehicles in the world’s biggest auto market.
- VW and Didi Chuxing Planning a High-End Car Hailing Service in China – Fortune: Volkswagen said on Thursday it is in talks with China’s Didi Chuxing to set up a high-end ride-hailing service, while also announcing ambitious sales…
- VW’s Chief Faces Long Road to Overhaul Auto Maker – WSJ: BERLIN-When Matthias Muller took the wheel at the world’s biggest car company last year, he pledged to steer Volkswagen AG out of its worst-ever…
Wednesday morning car news roundup, November 16, 2016
Top News:
- 2017 Porsche 911 RSR – Le Mans racer all but revealed in preview – Autocar: Porsche releases a preview game for its 911 RSR which shows most of the car; intakes hint at a boosted engine
- Autocar confidential: Ferrari, Audi, Mazda, Kia – Autocar: Our reporters empty their notebooks to round up this week’s gossip from across the automotive industry
- Rolls-Royce Earnings Headwinds Far From Easing – WSJ: After more than a year of crisis management, the boss of Rolls-Royce is ready to start planning the long-term future of the British aircraft engine maker despite pressure on earnings from new accounting rules and weak demand. Rolls-Royce shares fell in early trading.
Tuesday morning car news roundup, November 15, 2016
Top News:
- Japan Watches Samsung Chip Away at Its Car Makers – WSJ: s planned $8 billion acquisition of U.S. auto-parts supplier Harman International Industries Inc. has exacerbated fears in Japan that its makers of cars…
- Toyota wonders what may become of its most important market – Nikkei: Toyota Motor is bracing for possible ramifications of Donald Trump’s presidency. The auto giant is concerned that Trump’s…
- BRIEF-Fiat shares down after news of emissions test lawsuit – Reuters: … * Late on Monday the company said it will fight a class-action lawsuit accusing it of cheating on diesel emissions tests.
Monday morning car news roundup, November 14, 2016
Top News:
- NextEV hypercar previewed one week ahead of debut – Autocar: New official image lands a week before NextEV’s hypercar is revealed; it was spotted testing in the UK earlier this autumn
- MG images reveal new small SUV – Autocar: MG’s upcoming small SUV has been revealed in design renders; it’ll share at least one engine with the larger GS and will also introduce new units to the range
- Samsung Turns Up the Volume on Cars – Bloomberg: Samsung Electronics Inc. really has a thing for cars. While Apple Inc. is reported to have scaled back its auto ambitions, the South Korean company is…
And Now, CO2gate: Audi Puts Volkswagen In Even Deeper Trouble
Two weeks after a U.S. judge approved one of the biggest corporate settlements on record, Volkswagen is spinning its wheels, deeper in the morass than ever before. Over the weekend, the company confirmed what Forbes-readers knew since November 6, namely that “U.S. and European investigators are looking into fresh irregularities related to carbon dioxide emissions levels in certain Audi automatic-transmission vehicles,” as the Wall Street Journal writes. Dieselgate brought Volkswagen’s CEO Martin Winterkorn down. Fresh CO2gate can cost the job of Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, it might even lead to changes at the top of Germany’s regulator KBA.
Automotive News Reporter Gets 88 MPG In New E-Powered Nissan Note
Test-driving the Nissan Note equipped with the new e-Power technology yesterday, the jaws of Automotive News’ Asia-correspondent Hans Greimel dropped when the in-dash display showed 37.5 kilometers per liter. Greimel recorded the moment on his smartphone, and a day later, pictorial proof was all over Twitter.