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VW is considering axing as many as 30,000 jobs as it scrambles to save billions of euros amid a slowdown in the car market, German media has reported:
The carmaker recently announced it could close some of its German factories for the first time in history as it struggles to reinvent itself for the electric era.
Analysts at Jefferies said VW is considering closing two to three facilities, with as many as five German sites under threat, putting 15,000 jobs at risk.
[...] A VW spokesman said: "We do not confirm the figure. One thing is clear: Volkswagen has to reduce its costs at its German sites.
R&D will likely be hit hard:
While Volkswagen is staying tight-lipped on specifics, Manager Magazin suggested research and development could take a massive hit. If their numbers pan out, roughly 4,000 to 6,000 R&D employees could be cut from the current number of around 13,000.
Previously: VW Turns on Germany as China Targets Europe's EV Blunders
(Score: 4, Informative) by pTamok on Thursday September 26 2024, @03:53PM (1 child)
Branding varies by market, but in the UK VW certainly used to market themselves as familiar and reliable. In one advert, more reliable than the boyfriend.
They dropped the ball massively with the ID.3. At launch, the software did not work, and VW have had to row back from putting all the controls (including the climate controls) on the touchscreen. Touchscreens in cars are an absolutely insane idea - no haptic feedback, and you have to take you eyes of the road to use them. They should be illegal.
The EU really ought to look at the repairability of cars, too. Not only are there lots of components unique to the cars, they are horribly expensive. Cars should be designed for maintainability and repairability - not using unique, expensive 'modules' per car, so that a standard microswitch failing in a window position sensor doesn't require a whole new door. (I am not joking).
3rd party replaceable and upgradeable batteries should be a requirement, too.
EVs should last longer than ICEs.
As it is, I don't even have a choice of (built in) navigator in my car - and the built in one is terrible in some ways. It's basically software, but the car is ever more locked down than an Aplle iPhone - so I don't have a choice of what to use, unless I lash up an external navigator. This, too, is crazy. The built-in media player is also lousy, and again, I can't replace it.
The move to EVs had coincided with the use of more software in cars as 'driver aids', which vary considerably in quality and effectiveness, and are not free. In my current car:
- The software to recognise speed limit signs doesn't work properly, so flashes up warnings inappropriately way too often.
- The automatic cruise control, even at it's most distant setting, puts the car too close to vehicles in front. This can be seen with HGVs especially, as the recommendation is that you do not drive so close that you cannot see both mirrors of the tractor unit. This means the HGV driver can see you, otherwise you are in one of the several HGV driver's blind spots, which is a safety issue.
- I have the lane-keeping software disabled, for when it is enabled, the car gets as twitchy as a methamphetamine addict - it doesn't look far enough ahead to make smooth course corrections.
- I am unable to turn off the simulation of engine-braking. This means that if I take my foot of the accelerator pedal, the car slows down unnaturally fast - using regenerative braking - which means I am unnecessarily converting kinetic energy into battery charge, only to be used again (with round-trip losses) immediately afterwards. I don't need to pretend I have an ICE in the car, thank you. It wastes energy.
Car manufacturers have lost the plot. Things that should be easy and simple to replace are unnecessarily expensive and difficult, and the software quality is lousy. No wonder they have problems selling their wares.
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(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Sunday September 29 2024, @12:14PM
Seeing as a lot of adverts seem to portray the male as generally childish and useless, "more reliable than the boyfriend" might not exactly singing VWs praises, marketing wise XD
Not sure when they used to market themselves like that though, round these parts of Europe VW likes to market itself as a "poor mans Mercedes", kind of "you don't get the luxury, but you get the quality", which given Mercedes actual quality is once again not singing their praises if you know what the real situation is.
I agree it should be illegal, I don't know why they started down the path of integrated touchscreens, or even these "infotainment" systems. Back in the 00's the only car that I knew which had a factory screen in it was the Mercedes S-class and even that screen would disable itself while in motion because they clearly knew it was a distraction.
Perhaps its a generational change? I new batch of designers came into these companies who grew up tapping nonsense on screens, and thought sticking that in a car was a great idea. Plus much cheaper as no need for wiring looms, buttons and mouldings, etc... just a screen. Also you can add/remove features dynamically, which brought the new idea of "renting features", like on BMW, where you could pay extra per month for them to "unlock" the heated seat option. I.e. the heaters are there, the wiring is all there, but they need to flip the enable bit on the computer to allow you to use it, and for that you pay monthly.
That kind of attitude is what put me off all the European brands, the Germans especially love to squeeze you for every penny even after you bought the car. I generally will not buy a car that has a screen or "infotainment" system, which basically limits me to cars up to around 2005-7, cars that are already being regulated out of the ability to be used thanks to the EU.
Funnily enough, my main problem with European automotive markets (apart from being way too regulated by the EU already) is that the cars are already the same underneath. Recently I saw a VW hatchback parked right next to a Mercedes hatchback, and from my office above I could see they were the exact same damn car, it was so obvious I actually took a photo of it. Only changes were in the badge and some of the body panels. To think that someone spent multiples more money on the car on the left for the badge just reminds me how stupid people have become round here.
Likewise almost all the sensors are the same, usually made by someone like BOSCH for German cars. The problem is not that you cannot physically fit the sensors from different cars, it is that the manufacturers lock out the parts using DRM. In fact I think nowadays you can't even swap parts from the same make and model. So for example if you get a second hand dashboard for your car it fits perfectly in yours, all the wiring lines up, but the cars ECU rejects it.
That alone kills not only the second hand market, but any independent garage, because suddenly you need to be an official licenced garage just to get the ECU to accept the new part
That would be nice as the batteries are basically the failure point of EVs, as they were 150 years ago (which is why they were replaced by the ICE once it was invested).
Unfortunately I don't think the laws of physics will allow for that one while we use batteries. The power to weight ratio for BEVs is atrocious. While EVs have fewer moving parts they are made with the thinnest plastic parts possible to keep the weight down. Despite this they are at least twice as heavy as an equivalent ICE, meaning increased wear on the drivetrain, increased tyre wear etc...
If we gave up on the silliness of batteries and moved to something better then EVs would have a chance, but right now they are mostly being forced through with regulations and/or subsidies.
Yes, that is what I call the "infotainment" system. Its crap, and you can't replace it. My 90s car has a DIN slot for the stereo, so I've been able to update it by just buying a new stereo. My 90s car actually has a better system than the 2021 rental I had recently because the software in the 3 year old car was poor at the start (and this was a Toyota, so better than most), its locked down, gets no updates and you can't replace it. You are stuck with it no matter what.
Bring back a double-DIN slot and allow third parties to offer their wares. I don't need an integrated system.
Yes the driver aids are poor, and even worse some of them are dangerous. The Toyota I rented for a week was my first foray into "modern" cars, and yes it was a horrid soul crushing experience. I realise now why most young people are not excited by cars, they have become horribly dull hateful machines that you just throw money into.
I had a lot of complaints about the experience, but the lane following was the worst. It isn't that it didn't work because it did. The problem is that when it didn't work it was deadly. You can set it, it follows the lane fine on the motorway while cruising, then when a junction comes up sometimes it carries on, other times it violently swerves directly into the concrete barrier, which at 120km/h is instant death if you hit it.
First time it happened it scared the hell out of me but i put it down to maybe poor road markings, second time scared me less but I had to violently swerve the car back on the motorway to prevent impact (that time there were no road marking issues as I made an effort to check). After that I had to concentrate non stop to be able to take over in an instant in case it happened again.
The third time it happened I turned off the lane following and drove the damn car myself. The problem is that I found it was more taxing on my concentration to sit there watching the road being ready in a split second to take over, while not driving. It was less stressful and required less concentration to just drive myself.
I found all the other aids either irritating or annoying, and some actually got in the way of me driving well. Some I could not disable which really peeved me off. The only driving aid that really made me go "wow" was the self parallel parking. You line up next to the spot, shift into reverse and press a button. Then you take your foot off the brake and the steering wheel turns all on its own as the car parks itself. That really felt like "wow I live in the future" moment for me.
However you really must align yourself precisely for this to work. Sometimes aligning the car so it can park itself took longer than me just doing it, so two days into the rental I turned that off too and parked the car myself.
So in a nutshell, of all the driver aids a modern car provides, one is a gimmick that gets old after a couple of days, one is a deathtrap and the rest are an irritant.
Most definitely, my experience renting modern cars has convinced me never to pay for them, especially not second hand. If they are this bad when nearly new, imagine after 10 years when the sensors are failing, ECUs start playing up and electrics go haywire (generally the first thing to go on cars is electronics).
It seems other people are cottoning on round these parts. Second hand car prices have been increased faster than new car prices. 10 year old second hand cars cost nearly as much as a brand new one, as there is obviously more demand for the older cars than the new ones.
As for the manufacturers, if they don't want to make what customers want to buy they deserve to go out of business. There are other companies who will make what the customer wants and they will get the money instead (although I am sure the EU will work very hard to prevent customers having a choice).