The management of the German car concern Volkswagen is currently postponing a decision on the fourth electric car battery factory in total. As the reason for such a step, the chairman of the board of VW, Olivers Blume, cites lower demand for electric cars.
“Taking into account the market situation and the slow development of the electric car market in Europe, there is currently no reason to decide on a fourth electric car battery factory from a business point of view,” Blume was quoted as saying, whose statement from Škoda was received by the news agency Reuters. VW already postponed this decision last year, when it was considering possible factory locations in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Blume recently met with representatives of the Czech government in an effort to get VW to invest money in them, but apparently this week’s meeting did not bear the expected fruits. The pressure from the Czechs was actually quite serious and with an ultimatum – if there is no final decision from VW on this issue by November 1, then the chosen place for the factory will be offered to other investors. The Czech Republic is in talks with at least five investors, but two of them have plans and scale comparable to VW’s.
We have described the misfortunes of Volkswagen in the sale of electric cars a lot, but the situation really does not look good – the number of orders in Europe has decreased by 50%, that is, from 300 thousand orders last year to 150 thousand this year. This was recently revealed by VW Group Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz. Although the delivery figures look solid so far, this is largely due to the fulfillment of previous orders. The problems have gotten so bad that Volkswagen’s management is considering layoffs.
2023-11-05 08:00:00
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