The Volkswagen Group aims to close down SEAT, Spain’s only automotive brand, by the end of 2029. This move would involve phasing out the brand to focus exclusively on the premium Cupra brand, although the group does not appear to intend to close its Spanish subsidiary or the Martorell plant, which employs around 12,000 people. This was reported by the German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche, ahead of the Volkswagen Group Supervisory…
Report by Banco Sabadell The German car manufacturer has announced the main thrusts of its strategic realignment plan for 2030, which it has named “Future Plan”; we highlight the following points: ▪ A commercial reorientation towards products with greater strategic importance, which will involve a 75 per cent reduction in vehicle variants. ▪ A reduction in production capacity to 9 million vehicles per year (compared to 12 million before the…
Bankinter | The German company could close three plants in Germany. Until now everything pointed to the closure of two plants, one dedicated to the production of vehicles and the other to components. Now the unions claim that the measure could be extended to three factories and include the reduction of installed capacity in other European plants. Volkswagen has not confirmed the news. It could provide more details on Wednesday…
Norbolsa| Volkswagen will apply the North American Charging Standard to its future electric vehicles (EVs). Thus, the company is studying adaptation solutions so that existing vehicles can access Tesla’s supercharger network from 2025. The agreement aims to expand customer access to charging to more than 15,000 Superchargers.
Norbolsa | Volkswagen yesterday posted sales and operating profit above consensus expectations, €76,198M (+21.5%) against €72,300M estimated and €4,730M (versus -29.9% year-on-year) as opposed to €4,076M, respectively, mainly driven by volume, strong pricing and product mix. Geographically, growth was largely attributable to strong growth in Europe and NAFTA, while on the negative side, deliveries in China declined by -14.5%. Meanwhile, BMW released its 1Q23 results, coming in above consensus expectations….
The Volkswagen Group and Seat have officially announced on Wednesday that Sagunto (Valencia) will be the site of the giant battery factory for electric cars it plans to build in Spain, which will be the consortium’s second after the one in Germany. At the press conference to present Seat’s 2021 results, Chairman Wayne Griffiths and Seat CEO and head of Volkswagen Components, Thomas Schmall, confirmed the choice of Sagunto to…
Concerns about auto sector in 2017 are rising as US president-elect Donald Trump threats against US companies relocating their production to Mexico. Local players have capitulated to the President-elect’s dictates- Ford cancelled plans to build a new Mexican plant- which suggests that the industry’s spine is a weak one after all as it lobbies its way into the new balance of power.
Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has begun an investigation into Volkswagen(108,2€; – 2.9%), BMW (65,2€; – 2.4%), Daimler (52,3€; – 3.6%), Bosch (unlisted components supplier) and ZF (unlisted components supplier) for possible collusion in the purchasing of steel. The FCO could impose fines amounting to a maximum 10% of the companies’ revenues.
BARCLAYS | Potential reduction in car production as a result of the Volkswagen emissions scandal may negatively affect growth in Central Europe – we believe VW factories generate 0.5- 2.9% of GDP in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland.
The Volkswagen scandal is a gigantic fraud which has taken in nearly 11 million consumers, as well as a host of governments well endowed with civil servants and a raft of regulations. This deception now forms part of a long list of disgraceful corporate actions which have been revealed since the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.