Demand disappoints expectations
VW throttles e-car production in Emden
06/27/2023, 4:51 p.m
E-car sales are apparently not lagging behind VW’s expectations. The factory in Emden has already shut down production. Analysts doubt the carmaker’s indications that the situation will improve again soon. The stock plummets.
A reduction in the production of electric cars at the Volkswagen plant in Emden is affecting the share. The carmaker’s shares lost 1.9 percent by late afternoon, bringing up the rear in the DAX. A group spokesman said Volkswagen is “actively managing its business,” focusing on profitability rather than volume. The dpa-AFX news agency had previously reported, citing the Volkswagen works council in Emden, that the group wanted to cut production in the next two weeks because demand was lower than originally expected. On request, Volkswagen announced that the capacity utilization of production in Emden should increase again after the market launch of the ID.7 model at the end of the year.
However, analyst Daniel Schwarz from brokerage house Stifel was skeptical. “We know that order intake for battery electric vehicles has been weak in recent weeks. However, the fact that Volkswagen is reducing the number of temporary workers and eliminating one shift signals that it does not expect the situation to improve in the short term.”
According to Jürgen Pieper, analyst at the private bank Metzler, the latest verdict in the emissions scandal put the share under additional pressure. Eight years after emissions tampering with millions of cars was uncovered, a former Volkswagen board member has been convicted of fraud for the first time. Ex-Audi boss Rupert Stadler received a suspended sentence of one year and nine months from the Munich Regional Court on Tuesday morning.
It was only at the end of May that VW received praise from the international environmental association, which had started the diesel scandal together with US environmental authorities. ICCT attested that Volkswagen and BMW have made great progress in switching from combustion engines to electric motors. German automakers ranked third and fourth overall in the three categories of market dominance, technological performance and strategic vision, according to the Global Automaker Rating 2022 report. In the ranking, the organization, headquartered in Washington, used ten specially created criteria to assess how successful the world’s 20 largest automobile manufacturers are in the transition to zero-emission vehicles.