Volkswagen Group CFO Arno Antlitz said the company has only "one, maybe two years" to correct the difficult situation related to the low profitability of the main Volkswagen brand.< /p>
According to Motor1, during a meeting with workers at the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, Antlitz confirmed previous rumors that the company has been spending more money than it is making for some time.
According to the top manager, this is due to the fact that the European market, which was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the shortage of semiconductors, is not recovering to the previous level of sales.
Before the pandemic, around 16 million cars were sold in Europe annually, but this figure has fallen to 12 million as a result of the crisis. Although the market has already slightly recovered, expectations remain modest.
Currently, annual sales are estimated at around 14 million cars, which is 2 million less than previous figures. For VW, this means a shortfall of 500,000 cars, equivalent to the production of two plants.
Antlitz stressed that to overcome the crisis with Volkswagen, it is necessary to increase productivity, reduce costs and use synergies within the group. According to him, this is how the company will deal with the crisis.
Experts, however, have a different opinion. According to many experts, the company is facing challenges in the electric car market, with sales down 15.2% in Europe, indicating difficulties ahead for VW.
We will remind you that VW has mainly focused on the production of electric cars, and their sales worldwide and in particular in Europe continue to decrease. If VW does not revise its strategy, nothing good awaits them.