VW to scale down production of evs

VW to scale down production of evs

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Discussion

jamespink

1,218 posts

207 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
From everything I have read on the EV industry, VW are doomed. They are 125,000,000,000.00 in debt (125 Billion) they have dreadful, low performing anodine EV car designs that have lack lustre performance that cost more than the vastly superior Tesla counterparts, and a Tesla Gigafactory in their back yard thats ramping production 50% a year. Their diesel cheating has tarnished them greatly and most of their old tech EV cars lose money. No wonder they are scaling back production... In what world do VW stand a chance against Tesla, who even at the new discounted prices, are still making 30% profit on what will be 2 million cars a year... Dead company walking...

Mick-umnh9

31 posts

89 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
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The diesel gate thing didn't help. Nobody likes being lied to.

Diesel gate still didn't stop them making 3M marks, roubles, euros, bitcoins or whatever that year or so I read somewhere.
Lies come as standard with the dealer I bought my Passat from, as did underfilling the engine oil at service by 1.5 litres.
When I complained by letter, the German end was the first to respond, the others wouldn't have bothered if they hadn't been poked by the boss company.

Mick-umnh9

31 posts

89 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
The diesel gate thing didn't help. Nobody likes being lied to.

Diesel gate still didn't stop them making 3M marks, roubles, euros, bitcoins or whatever that year or so I read somewhere.
Lies come as standard with the dealer I bought my Passat from, as did underfilling the engine oil at service by 1.5 litres.
When I complained by letter, the German end was the first to respond, the others wouldn't have bothered if they hadn't been poked by the boss company.

Sheepshanks

33,323 posts

122 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Mick-umnh9 said:
When I complained by letter, the German end was the first to respond, the others wouldn't have bothered if they hadn't been poked by the boss company.
I would guess in Germany it was dealt with by a VW employee. In the UK they use a random 3rd party company for customer "service" - their sole purpose seems to be to fob people off.

jamespink

1,218 posts

207 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Mick-umnh9 said:
The diesel gate thing didn't help. Nobody likes being lied to.

Diesel gate still didn't stop them making 3M marks, roubles, euros, bitcoins or whatever that year or so I read somewhere.
Lies come as standard with the dealer I bought my Passat from, as did underfilling the engine oil at service by 1.5 litres.
When I complained by letter, the German end was the first to respond, the others wouldn't have bothered if they hadn't been poked by the boss company.
Dieselgate is ongoing, as it has emerged that the low emission defeat software still operates above 1500 mtrs altitude and below a set "temperature window" (I think) 7 degrees celsius.

Whataguy

895 posts

83 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
Mick-umnh9 said:
When I complained by letter, the German end was the first to respond, the others wouldn't have bothered if they hadn't been poked by the boss company.
I would guess in Germany it was dealt with by a VW employee. In the UK they use a random 3rd party company for customer "service" - their sole purpose seems to be to fob people off.
Several manufacturers do this now sadly. I had a Honda and made several 'head office' complaints only to be dealt with by some outsourced company they had employed. They even said so on their email footer. If I had actually had my queries seen by a Honda engineer perhaps something could have been done, rather than having to reject the car.

I had been considering a Tesla due to their charging network, but the number of niggles I'm seeing owners have is putting me off. People being left for days with no communication or being unable to use their car. And that is supposed to be without intermediaries.

At least with a VW if there is an issue the AA come out and if they can't fix it you are provided with a loan car while the dealer looks at it.

It is bad though that the manufacturers don't seem to be enforcing a global franchise standard, and going out of their way to ensure happy customers that will then buy their future products.

autumnsum

435 posts

34 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
lol 'VW and Uber unlikely to survive' 100 page thread incoming.

Tesla are doing amazingly lately. I don't like Musk much, but Tesla is quite something. Still people around saying they will go bust but at this point it's clickbait.

VW on the other hand... could be an interesting few years.

Bayley2016

3 posts

40 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
I’ll keep my ice as long as I can get fuel for it. In the UK the infrastructure is simply miles away from being ready for electric vehicles . Add in range phobia, disposal of the old batteries and the awful process for getting the raw materials for the batteries and the green argument starts to wobble. I think and hope that alternative fuels for ice vehicles will be the enduring answer. I’ve tried electric vehicles and they are glorified milk floats not for me thanks 😀

coetzeeh

2,667 posts

239 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
jamespink said:
From everything I have read on the EV industry, VW are doomed. They are 125,000,000,000.00 in debt (125 Billion) they have dreadful, low performing anodine EV car designs that have lack lustre performance that cost more than the vastly superior Tesla counterparts, and a Tesla Gigafactory in their back yard thats ramping production 50% a year. Their diesel cheating has tarnished them greatly and most of their old tech EV cars lose money. No wonder they are scaling back production... In what world do VW stand a chance against Tesla, who even at the new discounted prices, are still making 30% profit on what will be 2 million cars a year... Dead company walking...
It appears you did not read Tesla Q1 financials. 19% gross margin, the same as Toyota.

Nomme de Plum

4,868 posts

19 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Bayley2016 said:
I’ll keep my ice as long as I can get fuel for it. In the UK the infrastructure is simply miles away from being ready for electric vehicles . Add in range phobia, disposal of the old batteries and the awful process for getting the raw materials for the batteries and the green argument starts to wobble. I think and hope that alternative fuels for ice vehicles will be the enduring answer. I’ve tried electric vehicles and they are glorified milk floats not for me thanks ??
Do lots of long journey's do you, or may eve can't just think ahead a bit?

The Taycan I had gave a milk float a good run for its's money and pretty quick in the twisty stuff too.

But hey ho if you're happy to pay OTT for your running costs and restricted in cities that's fine however some of us have moved on.

Nomme de Plum

4,868 posts

19 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
coetzeeh said:
jamespink said:
From everything I have read on the EV industry, VW are doomed. They are 125,000,000,000.00 in debt (125 Billion) they have dreadful, low performing anodine EV car designs that have lack lustre performance that cost more than the vastly superior Tesla counterparts, and a Tesla Gigafactory in their back yard thats ramping production 50% a year. Their diesel cheating has tarnished them greatly and most of their old tech EV cars lose money. No wonder they are scaling back production... In what world do VW stand a chance against Tesla, who even at the new discounted prices, are still making 30% profit on what will be 2 million cars a year... Dead company walking...
It appears you did not read Tesla Q1 financials. 19% gross margin, the same as Toyota.
For a newish company I'd say that's pretty spectacular.

coetzeeh

2,667 posts

239 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Nomme de Plum said:
For a newish company I'd say that's pretty spectacular.
True, however Tesla margin was 29% two years ago.

Frimley111R

15,742 posts

237 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
jamespink said:
From everything I have read on the EV industry, VW are doomed. They are 125,000,000,000.00 in debt (125 Billion) they have dreadful, low performing anodine EV car designs that have lack lustre performance that cost more than the vastly superior Tesla counterparts, and a Tesla Gigafactory in their back yard thats ramping production 50% a year. Their diesel cheating has tarnished them greatly and most of their old tech EV cars lose money. No wonder they are scaling back production... In what world do VW stand a chance against Tesla, who even at the new discounted prices, are still making 30% profit on what will be 2 million cars a year... Dead company walking...
Despite that the everyday person thinks VWs are quality cars and their conservative designs appeal. They won't know or care about VWs financial challenges and will still trust the brand. The market is MASSIVE for cars, easily enough for VW to continue to do well. The diesel scandal is also long forgotten by 99.99995% of the public.

Tesla are tiny in comparison to VW - currently the biggest car company in the world and with last year's revenues of $253,000m to Tesla's $53,000m. In fact, there are 18 car companies bigger than Tesla.

Don't misunderstand me though, Tesla has done incredibly well but VW is a Titan and has the resources to fix any short term issues. Dead company walking? No chance.

Nomme de Plum

4,868 posts

19 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
coetzeeh said:
Nomme de Plum said:
For a newish company I'd say that's pretty spectacular.
True, however Tesla margin was 29% two years ago.
So competition kicks in. Tesco would bight your arm off for a margin like that.





Frimley111R

15,742 posts

237 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Nomme de Plum said:
coetzeeh said:
Nomme de Plum said:
For a newish company I'd say that's pretty spectacular.
True, however Tesla margin was 29% two years ago.
So competition kicks in. Tesco would bite your arm off for a margin like that.
And Tesla would bite Tesco's arm off for its sales figures.

TheDeuce

22,751 posts

69 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Frimley111R said:
Nomme de Plum said:
coetzeeh said:
Nomme de Plum said:
For a newish company I'd say that's pretty spectacular.
True, however Tesla margin was 29% two years ago.
So competition kicks in. Tesco would bite your arm off for a margin like that.
And Tesla would bite Tesco's arm off for its sales figures.
Their turnover is almost identical so I doubt it. Tesla make far more profit for each dollar of turnover.

Whataguy

895 posts

83 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Because I was seriously considering a tesla model 3 I did a lot of reading through the owners forums.

They seem to have just as many, if not more issues than the id3 unfortunately. It's many of the same things as well, lane keep assist and speed setting cruise control. Plus silly ones like windscreen wipers and software updates.

Tesla look like they are becoming the standard plug for cars in the US as major manufacturers are adopting it. But unfortunately that will kill the advantage of the supercharger network when loads of other manufacturers cars start using them as well.

There's a lot of competition coming for all manufacturers, but second hand id3s are now only £1k more than an equivalent golf so I can see more of them being adopted.

l354uge

2,934 posts

124 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Bayley2016 said:
I’ll keep my ice as long as I can get fuel for it. In the UK the infrastructure is simply miles away from being ready for electric vehicles . Add in range phobia, disposal of the old batteries and the awful process for getting the raw materials for the batteries and the green argument starts to wobble. I think and hope that alternative fuels for ice vehicles will be the enduring answer. I’ve tried electric vehicles and they are glorified milk floats not for me thanks ??
This almost reads like a copy and paste from a Facebook comment

Frimley111R

15,742 posts

237 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
TheDeuce said:
Frimley111R said:
Nomme de Plum said:
coetzeeh said:
Nomme de Plum said:
For a newish company I'd say that's pretty spectacular.
True, however Tesla margin was 29% two years ago.
So competition kicks in. Tesco would bite your arm off for a margin like that.
And Tesla would bite Tesco's arm off for its sales figures.
Their turnover is almost identical so I doubt it. Tesla make far more profit for each dollar of turnover.
Pointless comparison though isn't it - FMCG vs Luxury High Value item...

TheDeuce

22,751 posts

69 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Frimley111R said:
TheDeuce said:
Frimley111R said:
Nomme de Plum said:
coetzeeh said:
Nomme de Plum said:
For a newish company I'd say that's pretty spectacular.
True, however Tesla margin was 29% two years ago.
So competition kicks in. Tesco would bite your arm off for a margin like that.
And Tesla would bite Tesco's arm off for its sales figures.
Their turnover is almost identical so I doubt it. Tesla make far more profit for each dollar of turnover.
Pointless comparison though isn't it - FMCG vs Luxury High Value item...
You made the comparison that I responded too. You may retract it if you think it was pointless.

Whatever you sell, higher margins are preferable to turnover, especially when the turnovers being compared are equal! So it's not true that Tesla would swap anything for Tesco's margins or turnover. The former they don't want, the latter they already have.

I'm not even a Tesla fan, I've passed on their cars several times. It's just fact that Tesla maintain a very respectable margin vs Tesco - Tesco are i food retail, one of the toughest trades there is because the margins are so slight that the smallest economic upset can throw the company from a slight profit to a difficult loss. Yet they're in competition and need to maintain their spending power so they have to maintain high volume and turnover.