Internal divisions emerge at Volkswagen over 2025–2030 investment cuts
- On Friday, Volkswagen CFO caused outrage in a meeting by announcing controversial investment cuts, Wirtschaftswoche reported.
- Volkswagen brand core will be massively hit by the investment cuts and its brand heads said during the meeting that their return targets would be unattainable.
- Audi will also be affected by the investment cuts since its planned US plant is not included in the plan.
- There are no reports on the planned investment amount for up to 2030.
- Volkswagen’s planned investment amount for 2025-2029 stands at EUR 165 billion.
Assessment
Significantly reducing the company’s future investments could derail the launch of new products, which could affect its competitiveness. The decision to significantly reduce investment amount could also signal that the cost cuts (EUR 10 billion by 2030) initiated last year may not be fully paying off. Already, there was a cautious tone recently from CFO Antlitz regarding the cost savings.