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VW schließt 4 Werke! 55.000 Jobs weg und das ist erst der Anfang! — Transcript · YTtoTranscript

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VW schließt 4 Werke! 55.000 Jobs weg und das ist erst der Anfang!

Krall & Bubeck · 5,032 words · 25 min read · EN

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VW will certainly have to save at least 4 billion euros per year through this program of factory closures in Germany . Production is scheduled to cease in Hanover and Zwickau in 2031, in Hanover in 2032, and even in Neckers Ulm by 2034. This means the loss of approximately 40,000 jobs in human resources alone.

Neckersulen adds another 15,000. The alternative is to relocate production out of Germany to [music]. €60 per developer hour in China, €120 in Wolfsburg. Manufacturing costs €500 to €1000 per car in Europe; engineers in China cost €4000 per hour, € 50 to €60 per hour. In Germany, they invested two to three times as much in

a technology where they were not only lagging behind, but which people didn't want. People won't buy electric cars unless they are subsidized. The blame lies with the state-run economy, the planned economy, the federal government, the climate transition, the Chancellor's energy policy, for whom the war-torn heatwave is more important than cheap energy from Russia, which, if it were

delivered, would make the VW Group almost competitive again overnight . There is a secret document on the table, not for us, but for the supervisory board of Volkswagen. In other words: The Volkswagen Group's continued economic existence is only possible with drastic cuts. The document states that without drastic cuts, the company will no longer exist. Four

German factories are to be shut down, including Enten, Zwikau, Hannover and even Audi Neckers. An additional 1,000 people are to be laid off, starting as early as the end of the 2020s. The board calls this transformation, as was unanimously decided, and we want to talk about it today. Welcome to a new video on our channel.

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Yes, a warm welcome from Switzerland too, um, which is acting better and therefore not losing its entire industry. But, uh, we've already talked about Volkswagen several times, dear Christian. Yes, and um, anyone who has regularly checked in with us will remember that we have

already talked several times about the drastic cuts that are necessary to save Volkswagen, and about the previous bad decisions made by management and politicians . Incidentally, I already pointed out in an article on Tichi six or seven years ago that what VW is doing will go wrong . Sure, you don't have to listen,

says Markus Krall. Yes, it's unimportant, but uh, I pointed it out back then and I pointed out the causes, and these causes are now becoming critical. And what are these causes? These are negative developments that politicians have implemented together with management, namely the energy crisis, the artificial energy crisis, and cars that people often can no longer afford.

Production is too expensive because car production is energy intensive. In any case, it's too expensive in Germany because energy is so expensive in Germany . They were artificially made scarce and artificially more expensive to meet climate change requirements. And they mistakenly focused on electromobility, which is not efficient and is a product that people don't want,

and billions were wasted there at the suggestion of politicians. No resistance was offered against the nonsensical emissions regulations for diesel engines, which ultimately took the most efficient, best and cleanest technology out of the running, artificially distorting the competition in this way. Basically, they made every possible political mistake . And uh, the result is here now. The

VW Group is facing a wall, but don't be surprised folks, the VW Group isn't the only one facing a wall . The entire German automotive industry, mechanical engineering, everything that has to do with, um, metal, because metal is energy-intensive, everything that has to do with glass blocks and earth, because that is energy-intensive, everything that has to do

with chemistry, because it is energy-intensive, is now facing a wall. And the figures written here on paper are just as grotesque. We were just talking about this, Markus, you're about to intervene, but that's how it is, because the economic survival of the Volkswagen Group is supposedly only possible through drastic cuts, and they

refer here to the planned standard closures until 2038, which are then supposed to bring a net profit of 2.9 billion euros just through the standard closures, without the continuation, without the subsequent occupancy, there would be a loss of 1.3 billion. We were just discussing this, so I'll give you the figures right away. Is that

plausible? So in my opinion, it's not very plausible if that's a cumulative number over 10 years. That would mean that the VW Group, with this huge cut as it is presented, would only save around 400 million per year. Um, now you have to consider the scale of it. The VW Group will have generated

approximately 320 billion euros in revenue in 2025. 320 billion euros and the typical

return on sales in normal times, when politics [ahem] hasn't ruined the business model, is 5 to 7%. That means there has to be around 20 billion in profit in there, out of 320 billion. So, obviously Volkswagen is no longer making a profit. Uh, obviously the 20 billion have now been wasted somehow, because sales are declining

and costs have exploded. And although I have now seen that in the first half of 2026 sales have declined, they have not decreased by a huge amount. The revenue in the first half of the year is only about one percent below that of 2025. So, what this is about is obviously a cost explosion. If the

cost explosion is so large that a 5% return on sales is eaten up by 15 to 20 billion on 300 billion , then a saving of 4 billion spread over 10 years is completely implausible as a rescue program. That means the figures presented to us cannot be correct. Either they are annual figures, that could

be the case. That means you save 4 billion every year. But then the question naturally arises: how does that work ? Because it's obvious that if I close factories, then no more cars will be produced there. I won't be able to sell them yet. That means, in order to keep sales up, I have to produce the cars elsewhere. How do

I do that? I will relocate production to other underutilized plants or build new plants in locations where the cost structure is better. For example, play in China or in the United States, where energy is dramatically cheaper, where labor is dramatically cheaper, although not for much longer, because wages are also rising in China.

Because China has now become a rich country, wages are also rising . It's not that rising wages make you rich, but rather that wealth makes wages rise. That's something most union members just can't wrap their heads around , but whatever. So, that means VW will certainly have to save at least 4 billion euros per year in this program of

factory closures in Germany if it is to make any sense at all, given the scale we're talking about, and at the same time VW will have to relocate production. If you simply reduce production, then that means sales will also decrease. And revenue is the prerequisite for profits, because profit is revenue minus costs.

So, and I've checked again now, there is indeed a statement about it here. Closing the four plants will bring the group a net profit of over 4 billion euros more over 12 years than keeping them open. That's around 350 million per year, and that's for a corporation that earns tens of billions in good years

. Markus, I think if they're really serious about this, then I would almost say it's nothing more than a blatant lie. Well, I don't want to claim it's a blatant lie, but the plausibility check of the numbers does n't add up. Checking the plausibility of the figures would mean, okay, how do I get my return on sales back

to 3, 4, 5%, and with 300 billion in sales, I have to be on a different scale than is currently the case. If VW says that without these cost savings the company is facing ruin and can no longer exist , then that means it is no longer making any profits , not even losses. And if

the losses cannot be eliminated and are sustainable, the company will lose its rating. This means he loses the ability to finance himself on the capital markets using bonds. This also means he loses the opportunity to re-equip with equity capital because the share price falls, and so on and so forth. This means that

the entire financing structure collapses if losses are sustained. A mere swing of 400 million per year will not bring a corporation with a turnover of 300 to 320 billion, which then falls into the loss zone, into the profit zone. So, I didn't understand the paper as it has been presented to us so far.

And I fear, um, that the VW supervisory board not only failed to understand the document , but that they may not even know that they didn't understand it. Well, I would have asked questions. However, I would like to make clear to everyone what this means . Production is scheduled to cease in Emten and Zwickau in 2031. In

Hanover in 2032 and even in Neckarsulm. Neasul Ulm by 2034. This means that around 40,000 employees will be lost in human resources alone. Neckers Ulm will release an additional 15,000 people. That brings us to 55,000 people who will be out on the streets in the future. Many of you believe that the supervisory board can block it,

but they cannot, because the management board can decide via the general meeting and Porsche currently owns 53.3%, Qatar 17% and Lower Saxony just over 20%. This means it can be carried out in this way and the transformation will then be received exactly in this manner. And not that you should think, I think that's a good thing,

Markus, but in fact it is the case that they have to do it , because otherwise the Volkswagen Group will not be able to continue at all. We need to imagine that first; if that happened, we wouldn't have any VWs left in Germany. So, it's obviously the case that the situation must be dramatic. Yes,

when we talk about the end of the company , we're talking about the loss zone. Yes, as long as the company is still making profits, even small ones, the corporation is not finished. It's bad for the share price and unpleasant for shareholders, but ultimately, um, for the company, it's crucial whether it makes a profit or a

loss. Making losses in the long run is a problem. If he only makes small profits, then of course the lenders assume that this could lead to losses, and then the company is talked down and has to pay more for debt financing. But the key question here is, what is the cost component that has

gotten so out of control? And at this point, I'd like to ask what percentage of the VW Group's costs were for energy in 2020 and what percentage were they in 2025/26. Let's take a look at the cost structure; you and I have really dug into it and examined, for example, how energy costs have

developed for the VW Group. These have increased by between 500 and 700 million euros from 2020 to 2025 alone . That means 700 million euros are going up the chimney here alone for the federal government's energy policy. Now, of course, VW also has a competitive problem, even without considering energy costs, for a number

of reasons. The first reason is misinvestment. Where VW was strong, as was the entire rest of the German automotive industry, was in the highly efficient combustion engine and especially the even more efficient diesel engine, which is also a combustion engine, but of a different type. They abandoned these efficient technologies to invest in electric technology, where they

were already far behind the leading companies in China and the United States ( Tesla, for example). In doing so, they focused on a technology where they were not only lagging behind, but which people didn't want. People won't buy electric cars unless they are subsidized. This means that they have fallen into a subsidy trap

. At the same time, however, the billions that have been invested in electromobility are missing. They are lacking in the further development of engines for classic mobility, i.e., combustion engines, hybrid engines, and so on. And now others are leading there . China is now in the lead there, Japan is now in the lead there, and

even America is now in the lead there. That means we have launched a double strike against this corporation. We have inflated his costs beyond measure. At the same time, we have imposed additional costs on the company through taxes. The taxation imposed on citizens in Germany is normally passed directly on to companies through labor disputes

. This means that labor costs are likely to have increased accordingly. We can double- check that right now. At the same time, the vehicles that customers demand, both in terms of price and quality , are no longer at the level they could and should be at if the wrong investments had been made in

electromobility, but rather in the right investments, namely in classic mobility. What the people want, not what politicians want. So, now let's look at what this site closure means. This standard closure ultimately means that we, as the VW Group, are escaping two main cost blocks. These are the specific German energy costs and the

specific very high German labor costs, which coincide with the fact that the quality of employees in terms of their education, school leaving certificate and skills has massively decreased due to the education catastrophe of the last 20, 30 years. That means efficiency has decreased. At the same time, sick leave rates have risen massively. This was due to the

incentive system set by politicians, but it is probably also a consequence of the vaccination catastrophe that COBik has brought upon this country, and all of this together adds up to billions, not 400 million, but billions. That means if these locations are closed, the only alternative the VW Group has is not to relocate production within Germany,

but to relocate production out of Germany altogether, and then that might work , then the cost trap into which politics and management have lured the group could possibly be broken. However, ladies and gentlemen, there is no guarantee of that. And also quite interesting, there is another trick in the articles of association here, and it's

really something else, because the board of directors could implement idle production projects without the approval of the supervisory board, since the end of a production run is not among the transactions requiring approval according to the articles of association . Only the construction and relocation of production facilities require approval. Building and relocating therefore requires letting the supervisory board run dry,

or simply letting it run dry means nothing more can happen. The board can then simply decide on its own. That means the closure would no longer be necessary at all. You can simply let it run empty, which is essentially the same as closing it down , because nobody will be working there if it runs empty. Well,

I don't know, Markus, they're currently looking for wonderful opportunities to simply put this on the table so that VW might mean VW never then in the future, or VB, I don't know. So, um, I'm assuming that regardless of the legal proceedings, these factory closures are happening because the federal government has diligently and deliberately destroyed Germany's competitiveness, and because VW's management has

fallen victim to its own political subservience to politicians through its entanglement with the state government of Lower Saxony, where there's a VW law that gives the state special influence over the VW Group , through its further expanded co-determination rights with the unions, where left-wing union representatives influence corporate policy and strategy, and through the appointment, for example, of

a Green Party car-hater who has absolutely no understanding of business administration to manage the supervisory board mandate that belongs to the state of Lower Saxony. She is probably pleased about the destruction of the corporation whose supervisory board she belongs to, because as a car hater she is actually something like a Trojan horse in this body. And all of this

, this whole mix of circumstances, has now basically maneuvered the company into a hopeless situation. Whether or not legal proceedings are initiated ultimately makes no difference. Of course, if the supervisory board does n't approve, then there are procedural tricks like this; you just let it run dry, but letting a large plant run dry

is much more expensive than a proper winding-up and closure. That's clear, because basically, uh, the light is still on, to put it somewhat flippantly. Yes, someone else has to turn off the light when it's idling. And, um, of course, people will have to be laid off, and these layoffs will also be expensive for the Volkswagen Group.

Uh, that's about severance payments and so on. And of course, for the affected regions, this is a complete disaster. A complete disaster. But if you in these regions now believe that the evil market economy is to blame, then I can only tell you that you are completely wrong, because the one to blame is the

state-run economy, the planned economy, the federal government, the climate transition, the Chancellor's energy policy, who absolutely refuses to implement the ridiculous energy transition and for whom the war effort is more important than cheap energy from Russia, which, if it were delivered , would make the VW Group almost competitive again overnight . Especially Markus, the state of Lower Saxony

also has a stake of almost 20%. And who is the Prime Minister? Olaf Lie and Julja Wille of the SPD, and also Hamburg from the Greens, both are on the supervisory board, and I find that so interesting because in the communication to the plants, to the employees, there is also a direct comparison,

and I find that quite striking. Yes, you go and tell people that in the future approximately 50,000 to 60,000 additional people will be sitting on the street, and then you make a direct comparison, which is really shocking. €60 per developer hour in China, €120 in Wolfsburg, twice as expensive. Then it continues. Manufactured in China, €500 to €1000 per

car. In Europe, it costs €4000, four times as much. Engineers in China earn €50 to €60 per hour. In Germany, according to the trading platform, it's two to three times that amount, and then it goes even further. Production costs for electric cars in China are 50% lower than in Germany. And now for the kicker:

labor costs are $337 here, while the car itself costs $597 in China. VW has some models with pure production costs of up to $8,000, while the average in China is $600. That means a sedan the size of a Passat costs the equivalent of €12,000 in China. We all know that the Polo alone

costs more. It's simply a matter of making a calculation, and for me, as I've recently seen, the quality calculation no longer matters, because China has long since caught up and, in my experience with the so-called Kinoutos, is even sometimes ahead in the upper-middle-class segment. Yes, that's because China is doing everything right, both management and politically

. Uh, China provides cheap energy to the country. China is heavily reliant on nuclear power and, uh, coal, and is building more coal-fired power plants every day, meaning more coal-fired power plants every year than Germany has in total. Um, he's not interested in CO2, and rightly so, because CO2 is the molecule of life

. The planet is becoming greener due to higher CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Yes, uh, people don't realize that the Sahara is now greener than it was 30, 40, 50 years ago because of CO2. If you go to Holland and look at the growing area, you'll see CO2 fumigation systems to make the

plants grow faster. Yes, CO2 is not a poison, it is the molecule of life, which is a prerequisite for photosynthesis, uh, for greening. Photosynthesis is carried out by chlorophyll in plant cells, and chlorophyll needs CO2 to convert solar energy into starch. Yes, that means, uh, without CO2 none of that exists. Without CO2,

this would be a dead planet, where desert would exist if CO2 did not exist here. So, if you [ahem] take all of this into consideration, well, China has made the right political decisions regarding energy. China has, um, a huge supply of engineers, a huge supply of technicians, a huge supply of skilled workers.

Um, and we don't have all that in Germany. In addition, China has better and cheaper infrastructure. The transport infrastructure in China is now significantly better than in Germany. While we here are using cargo bikes with baby bumpers on the front [ahem] as the latest screaming celebrations, in China they are now building maglev trains with

vacuum tubes , which are supposed to have a top speed of 1200 km/h . Yes, now compare it to the rickety trains in Germany. who arrive too late even when, I do n't know, everything seems to be in order , because nothing works in Germany anymore, thanks to politics. In Germany, bridges are collapsing;

in China, they are building bridges. Yes, whoever that is, and spectacular bridges at that. I just saw a bridge that spans a gorge 600 meters deep. A gigantic structure. Yes . Um, spectacular. Science fiction. The Germans couldn't possibly build something like that anymore, it's princely. Yes, the Chinese are building that, and also an earthquake festival, by the way

. Yes, it's not that the quality there is bad. Yes, and um, if someone now says: "Yes, but I recently saw that a bridge in China also collapsed because of the construction defect." Yes, we had that in Erchaffenburg a few years ago as well. The Mein Bridge collapsed there. Yes, so, uh, don't get

so worked up, uh, don't puff yourselves up and say we're better. It's not us. We are no longer better in any area . We are worse in most areas . Yes, if there was this study from Australia that examined 70 top technology fields that will be important in the future, it found that

China leads in 90%, America in 10% of all technology fields, and Europe, including Germany, in 0% of all technology fields. This is no way to build a competitive economy. But perhaps that's also the intention of März and Co. Um, to make the economy so uncompetitive that it 's destroyed. so that Blackrock and others

can then buy up the debris cheaply. Yes, just think of what it means for Neckarsulm, I mean Neckarsulm residents, they know what that means. The whole thing will have a problem if it's actually shut down . I mean, there are still stories like museums. I mean, I hope it doesn't come to that,

that we have another closure like Ingolstadt, but you have to expect anything these days, and I 'm very sure, and I'm saying this unfortunately, that 50,000 will only be the beginning, because when you're already talking about the absolute worst-case scenario of emptying the business instead of closing it, then you know that these people are fed up to the core

. There's no other way to put it, otherwise they wouldn't do it that way. Markus, I have to say, I hope some kind of miracle happens, but I don't believe in miracles that the people who work there will at least find decent jobs afterwards that will somehow keep them afloat, because one thing is

clear: salaries from 10 or 5 years ago can no longer be paid today. These people won't find new jobs anytime soon. Unemployment is rising in Germany, even among qualified workers. This means that these people will have to migrate , will have to emigrate, in order to find jobs abroad. Many of them are qualified, they will

find something, but the region will become desolate. Furthermore, there is another element of future competitiveness where German industry and German politics have completely missed the boat and slept through it. And that is the increased efficiency, uh, that is achieved through robotics and AI. So-called dark factories are being built in China. Dark factories are factories where

no lights are on. That's because nobody works there anymore. Only robots work there now . And the monitoring of production, which used to be carried out by a small team of four or five engineers , is now done by AI. That means there are factories that only have one person sitting at the front, who is the

boss, and everything else is robots. And, um, these factories are becoming more efficient. A robot, even a humanoid robot, already costs only [amount missing] today. $000. to program him for production. What would be needed on the assembly line , so to speak, is no longer a problem these days. The robot's labor costs less

than one-tenth of the labor of a human doing the same job. And, uh, Germany has completely missed the boat here as well . Why? Firstly, because Germany has adopted a technology-hostile stance. Here, the question wasn't how I can become a leader in AI, but rather what I need to regulate in AI so that the bureaucracy

also has its share. And the second thing that was done was to completely fail to recognize that AI is energy-intensive. AI investments in the US alone this year require the amount of electricity produced by 30 large nuclear power plants with a capacity of approximately 1200 megawatts. 30 pieces. That's what AI alone will consume in the

investments being made in the US this year. And we also have a newsletter where I explained in detail how energy-intensive AI is. AI needs cheap, high-voltage, constantly available, stable electrical energy in vast quantities, and not quick electricity from rickety wind turbines, like the rickety Habeck brand, nor from rickety solar panels , but from real

power plants with gas, hard coal, lignite, and nuclear power. Yes, that's what's needed. And that's where we completely lost touch. And that's why I'm telling you one thing, because you said, let's hope it doesn't reach Ingolstadt too. Ingolstadt will reach this, Stuttgart will reach this, Munich will reach this, Wolfsburg will reach this. There will be

no location that remains competitive unless there is a fundamental turnaround in German economic and energy policy, and a fundamental shift in the entire tax system and wastefulness of our country, and a change in the question of war and peace, because that is currently the most expensive thing the Chancellor is doing. If there

is no fundamental change of course, then all these locations will no longer exist in 15 years, or probably even sooner. This will turn all the car dealerships in Germany into deserted places . Anyone who wants to know what that looks like can look at the Detroit of the 1970s. Well, I have to say, I do

n't believe that under Friedrich Natz there will be any kind of economic turnaround or whatever you call it, an autumn of reform or winter of reform. Feel free to write in the comments how you see what's going on here from your perspective. We might also have one or two virtual management employees. We are still looking

for someone who would like to conduct an anonymous interview with us and really spill the beans. I am excited. Perhaps someone will contact us, because everyone can express their opinion on our channel. Unfortunately, almost no one does that. We have another great interview guest today, Markus, an AI expert. Therefore, be sure to stay tuned

and don't miss our webinar on August 19th. then, directly after the Saxony semi-election, we will spill the beans and have a conversation with a real banking and tax insider . With that in mind, I wish you a wonderful evening and I'll see you tomorrow at the latest . Yes, I have one last piece of

advice for all the people who are losing their jobs now. Stop voting for the CDU, SPD, Greens and Left Party, because they're the ones who got you into this mess. Vote for the AfD. I'll say it quite openly. This is the only way to bring about an economic turnaround in Germany . And

if you still haven't grasped that you're in serious trouble and that the exploiters in Berlin, who are still partying off your money, won't make anything better for you, but will instead lead you to ruin, then I can't help you. Most of you own a small house somewhere, and you've made a down payment on it.

They are now paying off their installments. If you lose your job now, you will no longer be able to pay your installments. And because thousands of people are in the same situation, thousands of houses come onto the market, and that's why house prices fall. They are already ruined by the Habsburg heating law and by

over-bureaucratization. And these falling house prices will mean that if you have to sell your house in an emergency, the house will be gone and the debts will still be there, which you will then carry around with you for the rest of your life . Unless you file for personal bankruptcy. It 's fun when you have a family.

So finally vote against our downfall. Until then. Until then.

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