(dr) Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Everyone worried about the fraud, everyone relieved later – but now the window is narrow to solve a serious problem. Or several.
The global scandal became known as: in 2015, the Volkswagen admitted to having falsified polluting gas emissions in millions of its cars.
Later, the company declared itself in court but it was already too late for the 38,000 people who due to the health impacts of polluting emissions from diesel cars.
After the unprecedented drop in its history, morale among directors and executives has risen in recent years due to the investment in electric and autonomous cars and software of their models – the fraud was carried out in software of vehicles.
But few thought: What will happen if these investments fail?
This is precisely what is happening: most of these investments mail mal.
“Time bomb”
The warning appears on , a portal specializing in cars, which also warns: Oliver Blume, executive director, has a narrow time window to address this (another) potential time bomb.
This “time bomb” is the software from Volkswagen. And the engineers. His and partnerships. And a structure. And the money.
The Germans invested a lot of money in modernizing the company, precisely after the Dieselgate scandal. wrong bets, but
It’s just that Volkswagen looked at Dieselgate as a mistake “and not as a deeper, almost pathological disabilityof reforming the most existential and fundamental rot within the company.”
And here comes the (questionable) problem of engineering: “Volkswagen is a company run by engineers, and those engineers are great; but when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
In practical terms: Volkswagen management believed that a lot of money and a lot of engineers would be enough to resolve everything quickly.
But it’s not quite like thatMatt Hardigree’s analysis continues.
The car electrification plan was impressive (exaggerated?) but that wasn’t the main problem.
O Electrify America – electric car charging network in the USA – was the idea of some “smart lawyers”. It’s being a fiasco.
The bet on autonomous driving it will have gone even worse; the money invested in ArgoAI almost immediately went to the “trash”.
In the same context, the agreement with the Chinese Horizon Robotics is far from expectations.
Love
And then Cariad appears. THE Cariad is the central company of software of Volkswagen, a subsidiary of Volkswagen…whose liquidation has already started.
Volkswagen, like other automakers, realized a few years ago that Tesla was changing the desirability of cars purely from their stats/comfort/style (hardware) for its additional electronic capabilities (software).
He created Cariad, called thousands of engineers to build a software for all models of Škoda, SEAT, Porsche, Bentley…
Once again, it didn’t work. THE company has already lost billions of euros.
Os problems in Cariad have been constant, the delays also (tram shows were affected).
Several obstacles, a new Achilles heel for Volkswagen and delays in the group’s energy transition process.
Volkswagen’s reputation falls, profits fall – or losses increase.
It is considered “the biggest bomb this company has ever carried”reads the German magazine.
Rivian’s money
This Wednesday Volkswagen started a partnership with Rivian to develop electric vehicles. More precisely, to create new architectures and… softwares.
We return to The Autopian: “It’s a smart deal, but it’s a capitulation. It’s a recognition that Volkswagen is not only unable to devise a solution to most of its problems, but has also been historically terrible at finding partners that can meet deadlines.”
There’s more: Rivian even has a history of being more compliant than previous German partners – but it also has a history of “burn” money faster than you imagine.
The partnership can quickly become more expensive than the 5.5 billion euros announced.
Over the course of this year, Rivian has had a operating loss of 102,000 euros… for each car soldannounces to Manager.
And there are still some pretty good 7.5 billion euros in debt and payment obligations.
It doesn’t show any signs that it’s going to go very well.
In the end, the question remains: so what is the viable alternative to turn around (and quickly) this sequence? Looking for an answer.
