TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
VW warns of 'Titanic' effort to overcome emissions, trade tests
Volkswagen will take a huge effort to meet delivery targets this year amidst trade tensions and stricter emissions rules.
Change Size
In this file photo taken on June 22, 2016 a Volkswagen logo is seen on a VW Tiguan on display during German carmaker Volkswagen shareholders' annual general meeting.
The German government on January 29, 2018 strongly condemned revelations that three carmakers had tested the effects of diesel fumes on monkeys and humans, adding that it had asked BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler to explain themselves.
(AFP/JOHN MACDOUGALL)
V
olkswagen AG warned that it will take a huge effort to meet delivery targets this year, as the world’s largest automaker battles trade tensions and stricter emissions rules while preparing to amp up digital investments which may lead to deals.
Tougher pollution-testing procedures, aimed at preventing a repeat of Volkswagen’s cheating scandal, will take effect next month and lead to delivery delays.
The German manufacturer is also bracing for higher tariffs around the globe, which could particularly hit Audi and Porsche, the group’s main profit earners.
“Protectionist tendencies are escalating worldwide,” Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess said in a speech on Wednesday.
Meeting delivery goals while avoiding deep discounts this year will be a “titanic task,” said Diess, who recently completed his first 100 days in office.
Beyond the daily issues, he’s trying to ready the automaker for approaching challenges, from electrification to self-driving cars to sharing services.
The company needs a “massive expansion” in software and in its digital investments, including new partnerships and acquisitions, he said.
Volkswagen shares fell after the German manufacturer said it wouldn’t be able to repeat the 23 percent surge in profit it reported for the second quarter. The challenges range from economic volatility, increasing competition and the costs of the ongoing diesel scandal, to new, time-consuming exhaust-testing, Volkswagen said in a statement Wednesday.
The carmaker churned out more cars ahead of the EU emission-rules change.
Production jumped 13.5 percent in the second quarter, twice the growth rate of deliveries.
Volkswagen said earlier this year that the company may experience inventory build-up ahead of the Sept. 1 introduction of the Worldwide Harmonized Light-Duty Test Procedure, or WLTP.Diess is grappling with political challenges alongside an internal overhaul in the aftermath of the three-year-old diesel crisis, which continues to burden the industrial giant.
In the second quarter, the company took €1.64 billion (US$1.92 billion) in charges, mainly for a fine from German authorities, raising the total damages to about €27.4 billion.
Rupert Stadler, the now-suspended head of the Audi luxury unit, was arrested in June by Munich prosecutors and remains in custody.Volkswagen shares fell as much as 3.6 percent, and were down 1.9 percent at €149.40 at 10:18 a.m. in Frankfurt trading, taking the decline for the year to 10 percent.
“We cannot rest on our laurels because great challenges lie ahead of us in the coming quarters,” Diess said. “Growing protectionism also poses major challenges for the globally integrated automotive industry.”
