LONDON (Reuters) – Volkswagen plans to close no less than 3 factories in Germany, lay off tens of 1000’s of workforce and shrink its last vegetation in Europe’s largest financial system because it plots a deeper-than-expected overhaul, the carmaker’s works council head stated on Monday. Right here is a few response to the scoop: VOLKSWAGEN BRAND CEO THOMAS SCHAEFER: “We don’t seem to be incomes sufficient cash with our automobiles these days. On the identical time, our prices for power, fabrics and body of workers have persisted to upward push. This calculation can not paintings in the long run. “So we need to get to the basis of the issue: we don’t seem to be productive sufficient at our German websites and our manufacturing facility prices are these days 25-50% upper than we had deliberate. Which means that person German vegetation are two times as dear as the contest. “As well as, we at Volkswagen are nonetheless processing many duties internally that the contest has already outsourced extra affordably. Which means that we can not proceed as ahead of. We will have to briefly discover a joint and sustainable resolution for the way forward for our corporate.” GERMAN GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: “It’s widely known that Volkswagen is in a troublesome scenario. (…) The Chancellor’s place on that is transparent, specifically that conceivable unsuitable control choices from the previous will have to now not be on the expense of staff. It’s now a question of holding and securing jobs.” STIFEL ANALYST DANIEL SCHWARZ: “The plans move a ways past marketplace expectancies. I imagine this displays a novel mixture of detrimental elements: festival in China, softening of call for in Europe, particularly for BEVs (battery electrical cars), stricter legislation. “In fact, unions will disagree with the proposed measures. Alternatively, I in finding encouraging that unions turns out to in large part consider the research that VW must take important motion. “I believe moves are most likely: one facet asks for 7% salary build up, the opposite facet provides >10% salary reduce plus manufacturing facility closures. “It is going to now not be simple to discover a compromise. It is going to be attention-grabbing to peer whether or not unions will restrict moves to VW logo factories (the place it would harm VW much less) or additionally extend this to different manufacturers, like Porsche, the place the wear and tear could be extra important.” (Reporting by means of Reuters; Compiled by means of Josephine Mason and Christoph Steitz; Enhancing by means of Susan Fenton)
