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by iforgotpassword 573 days ago
OK WTF ist most of this? How about not targeting the upper market during inflation?

> If I had had this tool when ordering my Porsche 911 a few years ago, I probably would have made a different color choice.

Why not focus on what normal people want, like affordable reliable cars, instead of luxury cars with a dozen computers and screens in it where you need to get something fixed twice a year.

Look at fucking Volkswagen being a whiney bitch about sluggish sales when they focused on the upper market too for the past couple years. They just fired a huge amount of staff. Obviously just from the lower ranks, you know, the folks who actually get shit done, to ensure the coke-sniffing managers can still pay themselves huge bonuses for being dumb idiots making the wrong calls.

In 2019 Robert Habeck (green party) famously said in an interview[1], addressing head of Volkswagen Herbert Diess: "if you can't offer an EV for under 20,000€ by 2025, I fear you'll fail" - seems he was way off - by about a year.

> Volkswagen AG revenue for the twelve months ending June 30, 2024 was $351.396B, a 10.2% increase year-over-year.

But of course VW has enough buddies in politics that we'll probably just get a huge bailout package for poor Volkswagen, and all the managers can congratulate each other and keep going.

[1] https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/robert-habeck-...

3 comments

I don't know why the parent post is being down voted. I think it makes a solid argument about creating a car that normal people can afford.

That is exactly what Chinese car companies is doing. Here's a video by Caresoft of the BYD Seagull which s apparently sub $12k. (Caresoft AFAIK do professional level car teardown reports for the auto industry) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izvdO-zdlKg&t=2s

I'd love to buy something like that at that price point.

Volkswagen has low-cost brands like Seat, which so quite well. I think they are included in the revenue.

If Habeck implements a belated and voluntary Morgenthau plan by de-industrializing Germany, applauding the destruction of its energy infrastructure and by being basically only concerned about increasing Rheinmetall's profits, the German economy will and does collapse.

Habeck runs a tight censorship regime as well:

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/german-pension...

The Green Party is now both economically incompetent and a warmongering party. It has become the worst of both worlds.

Nuclear exit was decided by the previous government; if anything the green party accelerated adoption of solar at least, thanks to the Russian invasion and exploding natural gas prices.

The problem is that the other major parties are even worse. At least Habeck has something going compared to the other candidates regarding the next election.

>OK WTF ist most of this? How about not targeting the upper market during inflation?

Why? The upper class is the one least affected by inflation. Just look how the stock market is doing. Even in bad times, luxury brands are selling just fine, this has been proven time and time again. Have you seen sales of Bugattis, Ferraris or McLarens slowing down?

The problem is, VW is not a luxury brand, it's an expensive commodity, making it the first thing avenge people axe in tough times.

Then how did we end up with Volkswagen's situation?

Selling 100 cars for 20k each sounds better than selling 2 for 200k.

>Then how did we end up with Volkswagen's situation?

Upper class don't buy VW.

VW is a posh brand for the middle class which has now been wiped out by inflation and rising CoL, that's why they aren't selling.

I'm surprised I have to spell out obvious stuff like this.

Bugatti and McLaren are in the same league as Mercedes?

Mercedes has always been the car for the middle class to aim for to show you made it, if that was the kind of thing that was important to you. Sure they also serve the upper class, but then again Volkswagen has Audi for that. And I'd be surprised if sales of the expensive models made the lions share, but I have to check.

But at least in my bubble I see even folks with money turn away from these kind of cars. It's like the car is losing its role as a status symbol.

>Bugatti and McLaren are in the same league as Mercedes?

I never said that. You're going with offtopic parallels instead of addressing the arguments I'm making.

Lol I see why your username is green. Guess I've fallen for a troll again. I addressed them all and you get hung up on the fact that you didn't explicitly spell it out and ignore the rest of my post. Enjoy your meal.
Car manufacturers barely make money on the smaller high volume cars - eg. Mercedes only makes real profit starting with the E-class and up.