Volkswagen Group is radically overhauling its enterprise technique to economize and keep afloat, and it could axe its Tesla-inspired direct-to-consumer retail mannequin for EVs in main European markets.
In a press launch, VW stated that promoting EVs via direct-to-consumer fashions whereas additionally promoting ICE automobiles through conventional retail operations was too advanced in Europe’s weak auto market, pointing to what it says is the gradual tempo at which shoppers are shopping for EVs.
“Given difficult framework situations, we must reevaluate if our present company mannequin for all-electric automobiles delivers the very best buyer expertise,” Marco Schubert, the VW Group board member answerable for gross sales, stated in a press release. Nonetheless, he added that direct-to-consumer gross sales will stay a “long-term goal” for the automaker.
Tesla’s revolutionary direct-to-consumer mannequin, which bypasses conventional dealerships in favor of promoting vehicles straight via its personal community of shops and on-line, has fully disrupted the best way by which vehicles are bought in Europe, with many legacy automakers making an attempt their greatest to observe go well with in a extremely regulated auto market. In VW’s case, its EVs will be bought through sellers, and the supplier earns a set, decrease margin without having to tackle advertising prices or carrying prices for stock.
The potential retail revamp contains VW model automobiles but in addition Audi, Skoda, and VW industrial automobiles in France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and the UK.
In 2020, VW launched its direct-sales mannequin for EVs, and the outcomes from its assessment are anticipated to be launched in March of subsequent yr. VWs’s Cupra model, nevertheless, will proceed to sells its EV below the direct-to-consumer mannequin, as will all VW automobiles bought in Eire and Sweden, no matter drivetrain.
This comes at a time when VW is radically restructuring its enterprise to chop prices, and plans to shut down three factories in Germany – the primary time within the firm’s 87-year historical past that it’s closing factories on its residence turf. The plan contains chopping tens of 1000’s of jobs and slashing pay for 10% of its remaining workers.
The model can also be in search of to streamline manufacturing and growth processes, shaving off months on the event cycles of particular initiatives to assist tighten the belt, experiences Automotive Information Europe.
VW is closing its Audi plant in Brussels the place it makes soon-to-be-retired Audi Q8 E-Tron – an €80,000 electrical SUV that suffered from low gross sales – in just a few months. The corporate introduced that it’s going to shut the manufacturing facility on February 28, 2025, with 3,000 employees shedding their jobs within the Brussels space.
Picture credit score: Volkswagen Group
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