That as well.
A Porsche without a 6-cyl Boxer in the rear is really not worth having.
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But Harbeck wants us to drive dodgems.
If there are no tariffs Trump-style on Chinese cars (petrol and electric) then the European car industry is over. China built huge car manufacturing overcapacity that cannot be competed with, and built the complete supply chain - materials, part and final assembly; factories equipment also comes from local companies.
So, if they have to do all the same work then how come they can outcompete the West? Simple, one consumes less. The Chinese have fewer babies to raise, less pensions to pay, fewer goods to buy (because they’re paid less), less free education, less medical care and so on.
But that’s not all. Then you have workers and companies not considered a priority industry, so they’re made to cross-subsidise the prioritized ones. But there is a free market there, how do you do that? Simples, you just tax everybody and then give free credit that is written-off immediately.
The capital owners made big money while it lasted. Some of them probably built up a business in China and maybe Chinese will not expropriate them; they invested in real estate, other businesses across the world. The workers here or there - most people are detached from the plight of others, and experiments show the moneyed even more so.
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I wish that was true, but I remember that the transfer of technology was seen as a positive and impactful thing for the development of third world countries, this is what the economists used to make out of it. Twenty years ago all the economists of WBG, IMF etc were very much in favour of production being moved to the developing world. If you were a protectionist, you’d have fallen into the fringe category of people, even if you were right. (debatable)
Nothing to do with Trump. But there are tariffs.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_5589
China coerced foreign investors to form joint ventures with local companies and perform technology transfers.
Huge money was and is still being made on arbitrage of ultra-cheap labour in China and prices in the West. I guess a lot of these economists work was well oiled by these profits.
Even now Paul Krugman writes that, despite underestimated impact, the free trade is good for the US consumers who benefit from lower prices. Maybe he’s right. But maybe it is facilitating exploitation of people elsewhere while the profits are pocketed by very few.
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Prices in the used market are tangible proof of the customer preferences you mentioned. A 6-cyl Porsche with a manual transmission is depreciation proof (before inflation). Compare that to the depreciation of Taycans.
Lots of pendulums in life. VW group went hard to one side with the Dieselgate. No discussion, that was wrong. The issue is that they went too hard into the other direction (EVs) trying to whitewash their image.
On the other hand, this is the car industry. Porsche already had a near-death experience in the early 1990s. No one wanted to buy this then or even today.
The Boxster provided life-saving cash and the Cayenne brought success. So, ups and downs are part of life.
Aesthetics are nice to discuss. I cannot overlook the gap between tires and fenders. The antenna fad is like contemporary screens, the bigger the better…nope! Rear wing my be functional but looks like aero and design departments had a long time war. In general, it’s not cohesive. It looks like parts put together in the village garage, and not a whole design team at their top of their game.
What is out of discussion is that it almost kills Porsche.
You need an original 914/6 with the 911 engine and lower suspension…then you have a little rocket. Set you back about $60K…
Spending 650 million on marketing to increase sales will likely pay off, you forget a business’s primary aim is to make money for shareholders, not employ people. The P.E. of VW group is an appalling 3.64 & their workers have been going on strike, not the sort of business I would invest in.
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The beauty of business is flexibility.
Audi had a plan to buy 100% of Sauber F1 team for marketing purposes. As of end of November the plan still goes ahead, but with some changes. Audi 70%, Qatar Investment Authority 30%. Audi name remains, marketing to increase sales may likely pay off, but VW group is paying less cash for it. If they find another victim…errr, investor and their cash investment is reduced even more, what’s not to like?
Marketing helps to sell cars, but investing in development to make those cars something people want to buy counts too. The great outcome is that developing cars employs people.
No layoffs, it seems. Jobs guaranteed for more than 5 years.
Well, VW plans to cut 35000 jobs by 2030. Which is massive. But this is to be achieved by retirements, non-replacement and “incentivized departures”.
Which means many good people who easily find other jobs will take the package and leave.
Where too?
These “meany good people” have nowhere to go… Apart from a few who could the majority are band workers, highly skilled and experts at building a Golf but not much use for anything else.
Then there is the fact that they can´t just up sticks and bugger off to greener pasutures, leave their houses where they are paying the mortgage for the next 30-odd years, uproot their children from school, or Kindergarten… Try and find a new Kindergarten in this economic climate.
We are casually talking about people who´s whole lives, that of their parents and grandparents and children utterly depend on VW.
The gulf between political wishful thinking and realiry is so, so very wide.
Sigh.
What I meant was that from a company perspective actual layoffs might be a more effective instrument than offering packages to incentivize leavers.
But hey, this is the most political company in Germany. And we are going to have elections soon. And Scholz’s dripping social nostalgia for things that never were already makes me sick. But this is another topic.
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The political elite are so stupid they won’t relize the BYD cars have been blocked until it actually happens. Nor will they understand how China has so much information about where everybody lives and works, information reported by the BYD registration and movements.
I wonder if these are the same Qataris who were taken for a ride by Credit Suisse.
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