Volkswagen is Trimming the Fat, but Who Actually Gets the Meat?
I have watched legacy carmakers try to reinvent themselves for decades. It usually ends in tears, or at least a very expensive consultancy bill. Now, Volkswagen is throwing 50,000 jobs on the bonfire. They call it Future Plan 2030. I call it a desperate scramble to survive.
The European auto sector used to be an impenetrable fortress. Then, a wave of affordable Chinese electric cars arrived.
Suddenly, the old guard looked decidedly ossified.
Chinese manufacturers are not just undercutting VW on price. They are matching them on technology, and that is a bitter pill to swallow in Wolfsburg. VW has finally realised it cannot fight a price war with a bloated cost structure. They are slashing jobs and binning overlapping car models to stop the bleeding.
To me, this is where the story actually gets interesting for investors. When a titan like VW is distracted by internal surgery, the neighbours usually start eyeing up their garden.