CHANGE: VW Has “One, Maybe Two Years” To Save Brand, Finance Boss Warns.

Antlitz explained to those present that the European car market had contracted since the pandemic and was unlikely to return to heady pre-Covid levels any time soon, Reuters reports. That drop in demand – and slower than anticipated EV take-up – means VW will sell around 500,000 fewer cars in a year, and gives it a maximum of two years to cut output and reduced costs to steady the ship.

Earlier this week VW informed its works council of plans to shutter two plants. They would be the first time the automaker has closed a factory in its entire history. One of the plants would be a carmaking facility and the other a parts plant, The Guardian says.

VW’s employees in Germany are naturally furious about the closure talk, and the IG Metall union has not ruled out strike action. But Europe isn’t the only region causing VW a headache.

“There are no more cheques coming from China,” Reuters reports CEO Oliver Blume telling those at the Wolfsburg meeting, a reference to VW’s struggles to compete with increasingly competent and well-priced rival EVs in the Asian country that was once a cash cow for Wolfsburg. But Blume insisted that a few job losses today could prevent a ton more tomorrow.

By the time China is done adapting or stealing Western tech and then selling it back to us at a discount, will the West on balance have made any money in China?