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What makes Chinese cars 'better' than German ones?

Nexus

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VW in Crisis: Is China Killing Germany's Car Industry?

Volkswagen is planning to cut up to 100,000 jobs in what could become the biggest workforce reduction in automotive history. Once the world's dominant carmaker, VW is now struggling to compete with China's rapidly growing electric vehicle industry.

Nexus examines how Germany's most iconic manufacturer fell behind and asks whether China's rise is exposing deeper problems across German industry.

We speak with Bill Russo, automotive industry expert and former Chrysler executive, Max Zenglein, German economist and Chief Economist at the MERICS think tank and Ben Aris, Berlin-based financial journalist about why Volkswagen failed to adapt, the impact of soaring energy costs and whether the company can survive the transition to electric vehicles.

We also explore Germany's wider economic challenges, from declining industrial production to political uncertainty, asking whether Europe's largest economy has lost the confidence that once made it an industrial powerhouse.

Is Volkswagen simply paying the price for failing to innovate? Or is Germany facing a much broader economic decline as China races ahead?

Watch the full discussion and join the debate in the comments below.

#Volkswagen #VW #China #Germany #ElectricVehicles #EV #ChineseCars #Automotive #CarIndustry #Economy #Manufacturing #Trade #Europe #Business #CurrentAffairs #Nexus #TRTWorld #BYD #Jaecoo #GermanyEconomy #IndustrialPolicy #Geopolitics #EnergyCrisis #electriccars

00:00 - INTRO
00:25 - VOLKSWAGEN'S DECLINE & CHINA'S EV THREAT
02:35 - 100,000 JOB CUTS & FACTORY CLOSURES
03:30 - WHY VW FAILED IN THE SOFTWARE ERA
06:00 - ENERGY COSTS AFTER THE UKRAINE WAR
08:35 - CAN COST / JOB CUTTING SAVE VOLKSWAGEN?
11:11 - WILL CHINESE CARS CONQUER EUROPE?
12:44 - HAS CHINA CHEATED ITS WAY TO THE TOP?
16:13 - GERMANY'S ECONOMIC PROBLEMS
18:03 - HAS GERMANY LOST ITS CONFIDENCE?
21:18 - CHINA'S NEW COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
23:43 - CAN GERMANY RECOVER?

20 Comments

@NexusTRTWorld Creator 2 months ago (edited) Pinned

Volkswagen helped define Germany's auto industry success for decades. But with Chinese EV makers rapidly taking market share, Matthew Moore asks whether VW waited too long to adapt and whether Germany's wider economic model is now under pressure. Watch the full episode and let us know: Can Volkswagen recover, or has China permanently changed the global car industry? 👇

@bpeng2000 2 months ago (edited)

For decades, VW, GM, Toyota, and other legacy automakers earned enormous profits in China. Instead of using those profits to lead the EV transition, secure supply chains, retrain their workforce, attract top engineering talent, or build better and cheaper cars, they rewarded executives, inflated stock prices, and maximized short-term shareholder returns. Now that Chinese EV makers have overtaken them, they're blaming China for problems that largely stem from their own strategic choices.

@JürgHölzle 2 months ago

The former German minister Robert Habeck told VW in 2019, that they need an affordable EV in 2025 if they want to stay competitive. They laughed at him and his «green phantasies».

@moonbox3381 2 months ago

VW could closed 30 years ago if they did not get China market

@ledinhdong7743 2 months ago

German people make luxury cars but they never spend the money on luxury products. German tourists in Vietnam are the most frugal tourists.

@georgeeagle872 2 months ago (edited)

The problem doesn't lie with the auto makers alone. The general public is also to blame. Just look at German media. China is depicted as the bad guy only good at copying and Germany the good one good at innovation completely as if defaming China makes Germany stronger. China is on a different track. Germans completely ignore the fact that China is the world's no 1 nation leading in sci & tech.

@zimcoder 2 months ago

The Western mindset of thinking they alone can be and should be successful is coming to an end.

@timjenkins8538 2 months ago

I looked at a new VW recently. The advertised standard spec proudly stated “speedo”. The Germans have had it too good for too long

@alaneisner5739 2 months ago

A car is not a car anymore...it's a mobile iPad on wheels

@lee1039 2 months ago

Western countries came up with green standards. China made cars that meet them. Western car companies can't compete, so they blame China. Sounds reasonable 😃😃😃

@henk7356 2 months ago

What a BS. VW crushed itself in Germany by laughing off China's automotive developments 3 years ago. They made the grave mistake that German automotive engineering was unbeatable. By the way, VW invests 5 billion Euro in China.....

@My_momma_said 2 months ago (edited)

Problem is not China, problem German carmakers only think of maximum profit and minimum production costs, which leads to products people dont want and cant afford. Quality to price ratio is crazy. Greed is their downfall

@GaryA882 2 months ago

Increase the product quality and reliability, not the job losses. Maybe then more people will start buying your cars.

@dfan8432 2 months ago

It's not due to Chinese EV. German cars don't sell well in the US market too. The German car design and reliability in the last 15 years have been horrible with every new model. Way over-designed.

@ngm1237 2 months ago

The collapse largely because costs have soared....just after Germany's #1 ally, the US, blew up Nordstrom so Germany no longer has very cheap gas, the backbone of its industry, gone in a literal flash.

@CaptainBaseball 2 months ago (edited)

They went to China for hunting but get hunted :D The dragon eats the hunter.

@dolphine675 2 months ago

With hindsight it does seem to have been a poor strategy to use your profits / success to buy up other car manufacturers who were all competing to produce the same products and use that power to rip off the customers

@bluebear6570 2 months ago

Too many models, often even overlapping, ridiculous pricing, base spec models incomplete and mounting quality issue - a recipe for disaster. After 40 years of being a loyal customer, I now bought my first Chinese car.

@MS113MS 2 months ago

Looks like there are now many blame China games players in order to avoid being blamed by others. 😂

@hkjzking3516 1 month ago

VW was the first one entering China market and enjoyed a quite a ride over decades. In the good years VW can sell millions vehicles in China market alone. How blindfolded could they be to miss all the great things happened in Chinese automotive industry?