Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume told reporters that producing a majority of cars in Germany before exporting them all over the world “doesn’t work anymore.”

  • Jajcus@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    Chinese manufacturers can make cars in China too, easier an cheaper, especially after such ‘technology transfer’ (they learn a lot manufacturing for someone else). And then the western companies cry about ‘unfair competition’.

    • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub
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      3 days ago

      And Tesla already walked right into that one. They produced their cars in China, starting up an ecosystem for EV parts, and that gave dozens of new Chinese car manufacturers the means to start up to become cheaper and more innovative. Now Tesla’s sales are dropping and dropping there.

      So of course Volkswagen is there to say “we can do that too”.

      • frongt@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        They probably did the math on letting China copy them now or over the course of a few years.

    • drunkosaurus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      cheaper

      The funny thing is, I guarantee you right here and now that none of those cost savings will make it into the price of the final product.

      • mPony@kbin.earth
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        2 days ago

        cost savings

        Goodness no :) Money is only for people who already have too much of it. The rest of us have to Squid Game / Long Walk / Running Man for our next meal.

    • andreluis034@bookwyr.me
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      2 days ago

      Kinda of unfair. The Chinese government essentially mandated that cars needed to be built in China if OEMs wanted to sell cars in China, I doubt OEMs were willing to lose 40+% of their sales just because they didn’t have factories in China.

      Of course it was a lose-lose situation, as they will just get their parts copied and lose market percentage.