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The German auto giant will be about €11 billion short next year, leaving it unable to fund planned spending and investments, according to the newspaper. Volkswagen's half-year report for 2025 showed operating profit down 33% from a year earlier and a negative cash flow of €1.4 billion.
A slump in profits, weak business in China and competition from Chinese brands, as well as the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump have been blamed for the company's financial woes.
"Cuts are now being made practically everywhere - in marketing, sales, and some investments," one source told the newspaper. Several holdings may have to be sold to raise "a portion of the billions needed" for the development of new models and advanced technologies, Bild added. Senior managers described the situation as "particularly fatal" during the transition from combustion engines to electric vehicles.
Germany's car industry is facing one of its toughest periods in decades amid mounting competition from China. Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz all reported weaker deliveries in 2025, as demand in the Asian country - their biggest market - slumped while local EV makers such as BYD gained ground.
German automakers are also under pressure from US trade measures. Washington's 25% tariffs on European-built cars have hurt sales, and although an EU-US deal announced in August lowered the maximum rate to 15%, ongoing uncertainty continues to weigh on export and investment plans.
Volkswagen, meanwhile, has unveiled major leadership changes aimed at restoring stability. CEO Oliver Blume will give up his dual post as head of both Volkswagen Group and Porsche AG, with former McLaren chief Michael Leiters to take over at Porsche on January 1. Blume will stay on as Volkswagen's chief executive, focusing on a broad restructuring and turnaround effort through 2030.
Reader Comments
It sucks when consumers revolt against bs narratives.
They intentionally build nwo into the cars now and make you add $$ the stuff you really want.
Ken
So this may mean some long term arrangements will need to be cancelled - but "buck up" and take the losses the risk of upsetting potential future customers just ain't worth having any possible connection with any entity out of Israel - cause they are lying sabotaging tricksters who deserve outright disdain and no business in the future nor any mercy.
Fuck the zigaboos - they fuck up so much - tis proven beyond doubt - so time for them to reap what they have sown - let them whither away.
Good riddance you fuckers.
While the automobile industry and their media lackeys fawn over how many lives anti-lock brakes, lane departure warning or other automatisms might have saved, they never tell us how many accidents these systems caused, and how many people they maimed and killed. Because this I know for a fact ...
I own a relatively cheap car originally built for the second-world market, with a minimum of electronics and "old" (robust & proven) technology from the '90. Easy to repair and maintain by myself or any independant car work shop. No 5-digit sum special IT equipment and NDAs required, like all those expensive "authorized repair shops" need.
We the consumer didn't ask for shit like this. Big brother did.
I rented a car where where one of the renters before me turned all that safety crap on. I found it distracting, less safe. Spent 25min figuring out how to turn it all off and some I couldn't.
If you need all that to drive, you shouldn't be driving.
Although that somewhat declined later on (at least here in Europe), when Japanese manufacturers opened factories here, especially for models that sold well on the European market. One could clearly see the difference in a model-by-model comparison.
I was sticking to Japanese cars manufactured in Japan until lately.
Living in the German-speaking area, there is one automobil club - the ADAC [Link] - dominating in members and financing (that happens to be complete subverted by German automobil manufacturers). That club, with a huge network of subsidiaries and associated workshops, published an annual car failure statistics, broken down into classes, manufacturers and models, and weighted by the number of registrations. Watching this from about '95 to 2010, the results were very similiar each year. Japanese cars made in Japan at the lead, with 6...10 fails per 10k, German cars ranging from about 10 to 25, and British & French cars with 20 to 50 per 10k. Occasionally some German luxury car, costing >100k in today's money, got below 10 as well. And mind you, this was before the times of massive electronics & computer invasion, when fails had overwhelmingly mechanical causes.
But despite these hard facts, there was not only a pervasive propaganda about "highly reliable German cars", and the average citizen fell for it - despite the fact that most German cars (especially VW) were sold for a 30 .. 50% premium inside Germany
You migth guess the cynical satisfaction it gives me to see these bastards go down ...
But in Germany, where they are probably/allegedly manufactured, prices start in the 6-figure range. What's in it to justify this price, comparing it to other models with similiar performance or even my daily driver ?
Maybe I'm old-fashioned or paranoid (or both...). but I hate it when <things> do stuff "automatically" on their own. Which includes cars, PCs, and all the other 'computerized' stuff.
I am totally with you on that!
No matter if LDW systems in cars or "safe and effective" in healthcare - whoever does not think for himself gets what he/she deserves ...
Oops, it isn't called a kill-switch. Grok: "Current automobiles (as of 2025) do not come with a universal, built-in "kill switch" as a standard factory feature for disabling the vehicle in cases of theft or missed payments. Instead, manufacturers equip most modern cars with electronic immobilizers and other integrated security systems that serve a similar purpose by preventing unauthorized starts. "
And it is surely a pure coincidence that "strange accidents" and incidents happened since then. Certain whistleblowers and other "paranoid" persons suddenly swerved into a bridge pillar, off a cliff, or into a wall. Others rushed through an armed police road block, only to get riddled with bullets in the process.
If I remember correctly, a few years ago some IT researchers of a British university demonstrated this by driving a Land Rover car into a ditch by remotely taking over, from a hundred miles or so away.
One of many cars tested: " 2015 Jeep Cherokee Hack (Miller & Valasek) Researchers remotely killed the engine, disabled brakes, and controlled steering while the car was driving at 70 mph on a highway."
However, it is only called "hacking" if it's done without official (or semi-official) authorisation. The point is, whenever you hear a whistleblower or important witness suddenly died in a mysterious car crash or tried to break through a road block, you know what you are dealing with ...
On a totally unrelated note : Ever heard of Jörg Haider, leader of the nationalist Austrian FPÖ party that has been advertising to disentangle Austria from the EU ? He died in 2008 in a "mysterious" car crash, in a VW Phaeton. On of the most "advanced" cars available here at that time when it comes to electronics ...
I vividly remember a somewhat controversial politician of the German liberal democrats (FDP), who wasn't happy with the EU and forced monetary union : [Link] Campaigning with this very topic (and having occupied several minister seats over the years), he was finally "removed" from the scene, since several blackmail and defamation threats and attempts didn't work.
As an avid parachutist, he died in 2003 in a "freak accident" when his parachute didn't open. Nothing to see here ...
Or this one, even earlier : [Link] Although I don't know why he had to be removed, that was before the fall of the Berlin wall ...
But in case of this one, I know : [Link] As head of the trust company responsible for the former GDR, he spoke out against the dismantling of the East-German industry, and the planned full colonialisation of the East. A ghostly reincarnation of the "Red Army" terrorist faction prevented this from happening. He was replaced in his job by a banker whore with a solid Nazi family background ...
Of his own volition of course, and out of suicidal tendencies
And, let's not go to Italy when it comes to political murders ...
Ha! Ha! Very important to read the room before you follow the science.
On a related note, I find it funny that lately exactly those large German corporations are in deep trouble which are well-known for kickstarting and establishing the Nazi regime.
China is the most likely culprit behind it all, given the way they benefit from it.
But many say "ze joos" are behind it, given the large amount of people of that ethnicity that try their best at sabotage. But how would Israel benefit from the fall of the West?