In an interview with German newspaper Bild last month, Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume was painfully honest about the automaker's delicate situation. He blamed "decades-long structural problems" for the lack of competitiveness, citing high labor costs as one of the main culprits. Massive layoffs, pay cuts, and even plant closures are looming to optimize the business, but VW is also looking to cut costs in other areas.
Head of technical development, Kai Grünitz, spoke with Automotive News Europe's sister magazine Automobilwoche about how VW intends to save money. It's reducing the time it takes to develop a new model to 30-36 months. The goal for new vehicles that use an existing platform is to finalize the product even sooner. If VW were to stick to its previous modus operandi by taking 4-5 years to put a new car on the market, it would already be outdated by the time it goes on sale, according to Grünitz.
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