Dudenhöffer to VW: Why the group is so bad in the market

Mr. Dudenhöffer, again bad news from Wolfsburg. The win in VWGroup broke up by almost 31 percent. Expected?
Yes, that was clear. And to anticipate it: the next few years will not be easier.

Why is that?
On three things. At the too expensive location Germany. In the bad performance in China. In the lack of a future at Audi.

Are the cause or incorrect products?
The VW brand in particular suffers from significantly too high costs. With its works and development centers, it is too strongly geared towards Germany.

Why?
Because the corporate constitution provides for a 20 percent share of stocks in the state of Lower Saxony. As a result, VW, like the competition, cannot flexibly adapt its personnel and production costs.

On the other hand, you can do little if politics does not want it.
True. After all, VW has initiated the first countermeasures: 35,000 jobs are to be dismantled by 2030. However, the basic problem of the semi -governmental company remains unsolved.

What role plays China For the company’s success?
In the past, the large VW winnings came from China, this time is over. The sales are further declining there. But VW has initiated countermeasures here. With the China boss Ralf Brandstätter there is a clear, correct realignment: “In China for China.” VW clearly wins through his collaboration with the young start-up Xpeng. Today the Wolfsburgers learn from the Chinese, new cars are in the pipeline. That’s a good thing. The end of the dark tunnel can already be seen here.

Do you also expect the VWS to come from China for Germany soon?
Why not? VW electric cars “Made in China” Would also be much cheaper and more competitive in Europe. VW should build its inexpensive new e-cars such as ID.2 or ID.1 at least partly in China, also for the German market.

What would that bring for consumers?
The VW ID.3 is sold in China under 20,000 euros, so only slightly different materials are installed. In Germany it costs more than twice. VW would act intelligently if it would finally see more than a profit center: build vehicles in China and sell them all over the world. Other manufacturers do that too.

Despite all the problems, the VW group earned 12.4 billion euros. A lot of money! So where is the problem?
It is too little profit for a group that is so complicated. The money is not enough to manage the great investments of the future: digitization, the electrical business, the cushioning of risks that America brings with Trump.

At VW things are going badly, but a dividend of 6.36 euros per share should be paid for the shareholders. Shouldn’t the money be invested better?
You have to pay your donors as well as you reward your employees. Otherwise the course rushes into the basement. If he does that, it will be very difficult to find new capital on the stock market. That would be fatal.

Tomorrow the VW concert daughter Porsche will publish its results. For a long time the Zuffenhausen team were the money bringers in the group, now it is not going smoothly here either. Why?
Porsche’s products also do not work in China. The sales broke up by 28 percent in 2024. The competition is oversized. The best example is the Chinese company Xiaomi, which also sells cell phones. Xiaomi has a vehicle on the market, it looks like the Porsche Taycan and is the equivalent of around 28,000 euros. The Taycan costs 130,000 euros. So: the price distance is much, far too big.

Audi will have to present his numbers next Tuesday. What do you expect?
Nothing good. Audi is the group’s biggest problem child. The sales have only been a tendency for several years: downward. Since then “Diesel gate” the brand has no longer recovered, and so far you can see little conceptual what leads to the future. The earlier profits melt like snow in the sun. An end is not foreseeable.

What does Audi do wrong?
For example, that you use a new development board every two years. Audi needs real reconstruction and stability. They are currently very chaotic.

That all sounds cloudy. Is there nothing gratifying to report in Wolfsburg?
But: Škoda. The daughter is the new star and stabilizes the VW group with its products and efficiency. Wolfsburg needs more ŠKODA genes for the future. Donald Trump and his customs wars make life difficult for Porsche and Audi. Škoda from Mladá Boleslav has little to fear here.

The world is currently being mixed up vigorously, especially by Trump. Does Mercedes, that presents his annual report tomorrow, are it better than VW?
Yes. But Mercedes has similar problems in China at the electric cars. There you also control strongly. At Mercedes I am a bit more optimistic than with VW.

Why?
Among other things, because the tariffs Mercedes are less hurt than the VW group. Mercedes already produces in America (Tuscaloosa, editor’s note)Audi and Porsche don’t. And the VW brand has always been an orphanage in the USA.

What do you expect for BMW in these wild times?
BMW is more stable than VW, but currently has thin margins. So BMW needs the “New class”that is now on the market. It has to work, also in China. In the United States, BMW is particularly exposed to the risks of Trump’s customs war, because BMW USA is the largest exporter to China, which now wants to collect against tariffs.

We come back to Germany. Here the US mother Ford has just terminated the support of her Cologne European subsidiary. In the future, it will no longer automatically compensate for the high losses. Is there Ford before that?
I would not rule that out. Ford produces too few cars here to be successful, and they are also designed far too much for the purely European market. And the electric cars that come to us from Ford from America are too big and therefore hardly suitable for us.

The new coalitioners, CDU and SPD, are currently working on the big bull for the German economy. Does what is planned help the automotive industry?
Too much is still unclear. However, the auto industry will not be an absolute winner, but Rheinmetall and everyone who produces weapons.

A little spongy has announced black-red new bonuses for electric cars. Do you believe in it?
Oh, on the one hand you want to pay subsidies for electric cars, but on the other hand, the burner ban 2035. It’s all totally contradictory and unsettled consumers.

What would really help the auto industry? What can politics do?
First, Brussels has to abolish the tariffs for Chinese electric cars so that the general population is in the first place due to affordable Stromer. Second, it has to stay with the 2035 burner ban. Third, electricity prices have to be down, so everyone sees that electric cars can be driven cheaper than combustion engines. And fourth, of course, there can also be an e-car bonus during the transition period. But she alone doesn’t make you want the electric car.

Volkswagen set up a sales record last year: 8.55 million “Volkswagen Original Currywurst” were output in the canteens and supermarkets – that is more than the VWS sold. Should Wolfsburg change the business model?
If the canteen meal is the only thing VW can be proud of, that’s sad. And from a health point of view, I would recommend the Wolfsburgers more diversity in the courts for the employees.