VW CEO Warns EV Development Could Bankrupt The Industry

Nah, he's just spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt).

Each manufacturer is weighing their best intel on EV demand, R&D costs, and so on in their Cost/Benefit Analysis for bringing their own EVs to market. It's that simple.

VW is plying FUD because they've been ordered to get heavily into EVs as part of their court-ordered Dieselgate Settlement. VW's statement smells to me like VW *might* not be so good at EVs, or EVs might not be as profitable as VW wants, and so they want to scale back their EV participation, but can't due to the court agreement.

Maybe VW would be more solvent and an EV leader if it didn't payout $35 to $60 billion in Dieselgate fines, penalties, settlements, fees and payments before it goes away.

Big Auto Execs would rather keep the past mindset of stuffing as much $$$ corporate profits into their own personal bank accounts than R&D like they should have been doing all along. Now they are caught with their pants down, years behind stiff EV competition like Tesla and the surge of Chinese producers that are being heavily financed by investment money and the Chinese Government. The Germans can keep relying on German Government mandates for fleet sales and German citizen loyalty, but that only goes as far as inside the borders of Germany itself. The rest of the world is busy moving on towards an EV future at an increasingly rapid pace, and those big fat $$$ profits that mean big bonuses and salaries to the top Execs are threatened. That is their REAL concern.

The is just VW trying to wiggle out of their settlement.

MD said > just VW trying to wiggle out of their settlement.

An ethical company like VW would not try that !!!!

Indeed...what am I thinking? VW is as pure as the driven snow raining down from the chimneys of Auschwitz in the 1940s. Tesla gave everyone the rights to their technology so implementing it as is will obviously bankrupt everyone. Remember, I'm a Tesla hater and even I am pointing to Tesla on this one. Jeezis. VW is a band of unmitigated bastards.

Let's all make VW's statement a self-fulfilling prophecy and just cease buying VW products.

VW's behavior is scandalous (and I'm talking about their corporate behavior).

If you add in all the blown $4,000 DSG transmissions at 50,000 miles (2 yrs out of warranty); the various VW and Audi plastic bits and screws that seem to always be sitting on the interior carpeting after having fallen off; the 2.0 Turbo oil sludge and engine failure issues that also crop up a few thousand miles after the warranty is up, not to mention the glitch-y electronics - there is certainly a special circle of hell for VW management.

When was VW/Audi's "virtual cockpit" rolled out? I can't wait for the period two months after the warranty is up (48 mos on Audi's and 72 mos on VW's) when there will likely be tons of people who can't operate their vehicles because the virtual cockpit IP burned out and went black. $3,000 to fix???

And the plastic water pumps that fail between 40K and 50K miles that cost $1200 to replace. Then there is the light bulb burn out feature. Much higher rate than other vehicles.

Does not seem Tesla needs to worry about VW in the near future.

Nor is VW a threat to anyone else really. VW is the new "old" GM. If you look at the rampant badge engineering between VW, Skoda, and Seat and then they created the Cupra brand to overlap with SEAT you have the Chevy/Pontiac/Oldsmobile. Buick kind of fiasco all over again.

Then factor in crossovers for Europe and crossovers for China that will not be sold in the USA as opposed to going to "world" products and you have more squandering of resources.

Actually - The "Brand" Fiasco that gm had on its hand was NOT a problem for several decades.

At one time - the different "Brands" of GM - and Chrysler - and even FORD to an extent - were not just additional brands - they were actually levels of performance and/or luxury - and each Brand had its place in the Hierarchy - Buick being the Doctors car - Pontiac was performance - etc. Cadillac - at the height - had power windows/Seats/Air conditioning - something you could not have in a Chevy. THat plus the yearly model refreshes - kept the US Auto manufacturers in money for years.

It was basically only when ALL of the brands had performance version - and Luxury version - with all the bells and whistles -that the overlap of brands became too much- and not needed. Today - power door locks are standard in almost every car cheap car.

However - VW simply has too many brands to deal with - and they are trying to position each brands - moving both VW and AUDI upmarket from where they were. THey have also spent the money to develop a small number of Platforms from which virtually all cars will be made - spreading out costs better across the brands. Still -you need stylists - and advertising - and support for all these dealers and brands - at some point I would expect VW to have to consolidate Brands in some way

Wait a minute! When the Taycan was announced a few months back, the same crowd here declared that its EV technology would trickle down to Audi and VW and together they would destroy Tesla.

How quick that tune has changed. Who's the next Tesla Killer ?

Talk about putting words in people's mouths! Don't accuse people of something they did not say. VW is blustering about how EVs will bankrupt the company and everyone here has called them on the BS. So don't attribute what VW is saying as what people here have said. I know you Liberal types like to bash and bully, but y'all look like stupid little cry babies when you do it. The Taycan WILL exceed Tesla.

The German car companies are shi$$ing a brick over EVs and autonomous driving. They are nervous that their lead in Powertrains and driving dynamics, and silicon valley will beat them in autonomous software. The problem is that the German govt won’t be able to save them this time around like they did with diesels.

Before I left VW last year they had promised us dealers at least 1 all electric model by 2020 and a ton more shortly after. Spending 15 years selling them I can say they never ever kept promises of product and timing so when they did finally launch a product it was already dead on arrival or had too many issues to be a contender. This is shaping up to be much of the same as they are essentially just over a year away from launching their EV models with nothing to show for it.

well Fotto1 since your intelligence level is too low to understand I will explain it to you. The only EV VW offers in the US is the E-Golf which can ONLY be sold in the 7 carb states(I do not live in one of those states) and guess what last month they sold 14 in those states with just over 800 for the entire year. VW has been promsing an EV for all 50 states that will be a mass market car which is what I was referring to.