The Volkswagen Group does not seem to have the best reputation among its suppliers. Prices are pushed down wherever possible, even afterwards, during ongoing production, cutbacks are applied and the price screw is turned down. Right now this will finally end up here. The Wolfsburg-based company vows to deal with supplier companies in a spirit of partnership in the future.
“Today we need a different relationship in cooperation, it really needs a lot more cooperation,” said Group Purchasing Director Murat Aksel in an interview with the industry and business newspaper Automobilwoche. Subsequent price rounds, with which the group has previously pushed prices afterwards, are to be dispensed with entirely in the future. I would like to concentrate this energy more on the beginning of the cooperation so that we don’t have to invest a lot of effort in further negotiations on both sides later on,” said Aksel. The new strategy also has a name: “Best Price at Start of Production”. They want to “clarify things properly at the beginning and then be able to rely on both parties,” says Aksel. This should come into play for the first time in 2023 with the new Tiguan. “For me, it’s about the fact that we go from being just ‘cost scrubbers’ to ‘cost designers’,” said Aksel. In the future, VW wants to work much more closely with its suppliers and involve them in the development phase. “And that’s why we have to deal with them as partners.” Volkswagen expects this to create a large creative pool of top engineers whose ideas will then flow into new vehicle projects. “We now want to bring exactly these ideas from outside into the company.”
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