2024-05-04 02:44:03
The German car manufacturer VW is fighting for its position on the market. Sustainability boss Voeste is convinced that sustainability can help. But do customers see it that way?
The pressure from China is growing: While production in Germany is expensive and bureaucratic, young Chinese competitors are pushing into the competitive electric car market with state support.
They also want to win over European customers with a variety of new models and comparatively low prices and are thus declaring war on traditional companies like Volkswagen. You can read more about the methods of the Chinese manufacturer BYD here. VW sustainability chief Dirk Voeste is nevertheless convinced that his company not only can, but must, afford more sustainability right now.
“Climate change is happening all over the world and it won’t wait. Our customers, partners and employees are of course also aware of this,” says Voeste in an interview with t-online. “Although the economic situation is challenging, we are investing in sustainability. We are convinced that this is also important for our customers.”
Voeste: Investments despite economic challenges
The big difficulty: customers also have to buy the more sustainable cars. In Germany in particular, demand for electric cars has recently actually declined. According to VW, the start of the year was “cautious”. Europe’s largest car manufacturer suffered from weak new business. Sales fell by one percent to almost 75.5 billion euros, and operating profit fell by a fifth to 4.59 billion euros. The bottom line is that the group earned 3.7 billion euros in the three months, one billion less than a year earlier.
Demand for electric cars in particular weakened. After the state purchase bonus was abolished at the end of 2023, it actually collapsed. Business with the electric vehicles that are important to VW is now picking up again, said CFO Arno Antlitz when presenting the quarterly figures.
The funding that ended at short notice has once again triggered skepticism among many potential customers. In addition, many people are concerned that the charging infrastructure is still not developed across the board. “Consumers and companies need reliability – especially from politicians,” demands Voeste.
VW needs the electric cars above all to meet the EU’s requirements for CO2 emissions in the fleet. Added to this are the federal government’s ambitious goals of having a total of 15 million electric cars on German roads by 2030. Germany is still a long way from that, with currently almost half a million vehicles. There is disagreement in the automotive industry as to whether the goal can even be achieved in such a short time. The Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) still believes it is feasible. Voeste, on the other hand, is more cautious with such assessments: “It is very demanding to achieve these goals. But I think it is important to set such goals because they create ambition and motivation.”
More than electric cars
As far as his own motivation is concerned, it is important for Voeste to emphasize that for him sustainability is more than just electric cars. “We have four dimensions for our regenerate+ sustainability strategy: environment, business, society and our employees,” explains Voeste. Specifically, this means, among other things, that the company has committed to sourcing 40 percent of its materials from circular economy sources by 2040.
Meanwhile, the employees’ main focus is on transforming the plants and maintaining jobs – especially in Germany. Last year there were 14.3 million hours of further training across the group. By 2030, this number is expected to increase by another 35 percent. An important measure, because 18,000 employees alone are currently affected by the factory’s conversion from combustion engines to electric cars. VW employs more than 680,000 people worldwide.