When the VW Beetle ran out of steam and the car was hopelessly outdated, along came the Golf. The first models were a disaster in terms of quality and were already rusting in the salesroom. But the Golf saved VW. That was in 1974. Since then, the Wolfsburg-based company has been fighting back from the brink to the top of the world.
Now VW would need a savior again – but it won’t be the Golf anymore. Sales have slowed, especially sales of electric vehicles. The market in the US is suffering, as is China. And in Germany there has been far too little going on for a long time. Now VW management is pulling the ripcord. Trying to close plants in Germany and lay off thousands.
The engine of the German upswing
In addition to the economic facts, the job losses, the management failure, the current crisis at VW have a symbolic component. After the war, VW was synonymous with the economic miracle. The engine of the German upswing went to Hitler’s ruin in Wolfsburg. In business, the VW bus was the benchmark, in private life the Beetle was the affordable bourgeois dream.
When the combustion engine was still the measure of everything, things were going well at VW, despite all the scandals. The brand seemed immune to everything, the brand stood against every storm, even the diesel scandal. VW seems to have defrauded hundreds of thousands of cars, and the court cases against the bosses at the time are still ongoing.
Depending on subsidies
But VW missed its entry into the electric market for a long time; the models were too expensive, too complicated to use, and had too little range. An electric VW for the people, one under 25,000 euros, is yet to come – perhaps in two years. One of the main drivers of the current crisis can be found in Berlin. At the beginning of the year, the Scholz government canceled the purchase bonus for electric cars – at least 9,000 euros each. In the stream of this bonus, VW did not reduce its costs; The state eventually paid the return. Until Berlin could no longer afford this luxury.
The result: sales plummeted – just at the moment when China flooded the German market with cheap, heavily subsidized electric vehicles.
Total chaos in the traffic lights
For Chancellor Scholz and his government, VW’s dismantling plans come at the most opportune time. Scholz – and also his Ministers Habeck and Lindner – announced different summits for the economic crisis this week. Typical traffic light: No one knew about the other, things escalated over the weekend and accusations were rife. Complete chaos at the traffic lights, once again.
Now Scholz and especially his Green Economy Minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck are seen as VW killers, as those involved in the whole mess. It will be difficult if not impossible to get rid of this image. A disaster for Chancellor Scholz, who now has to enter the election campaign with this heavy backpack.
Rescue is not in sight. The traffic light is a bit like the beetle: when you reach the end of the cycle, you run out of breath. Scholz would need Golf now. Which battery it could draw new energy. But just: it looks bad.
