D The car maker Volkswagen expects due to the new emissions test with an even longer dry spell than previously known. “This topic will occupy us for a few months until we come back to a normal driving style in the plants,” wrote CEO Herbert Diess to the employees.
Because of the from 1 September for new vehicles mandatory exhaust test standard WLTP holds VW At the parent plant in Wolfsburg after the beginning of the plant holidays the bands on a daily basis, because the Group with the certification of different model variants is not so fast behind. “Colleagues in TE (Technical Development) and in production are working hard to keep the effects under control,” the CEO said in a letter. Completed new cars without registration must park somewhere VW, until they can be sold. Because the parking areas in Wolfsburg are not sufficient, VW announced to rent parking spaces on the still not opened Berlin breakdown airport BER.
Also works council chief Bernd Osterloh turned to the workforce. “After the summer we go into a time of uncertainty,” he wrote before the weekend. During the planned closing days in production, the works council had to be able to fairly distribute the burden of the employees against the resistance of the company management. “But it is also foreseeable that the WLTP problems will go beyond the third quarter.”
Diesel affair binds forces
One reason for the long time span is that the exhaust gas scandal binds many forces. The “Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung” Osterloh said: “The diesel affair, we have, of course, the capacity of colleagues first of course very much focused on the management of software updates.”
VW is also concerned about the tariff dispute between the United States and the EU. president Donald Trump had threatened European car makers and suppliers with import duties of 20 percent, an examination of the measures is currently underway in the US Department of Commerce.
“Only the US protective tariffs discussed could result in billions in losses for German manufacturers,” wrote Diess. The VW boss had together with Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche BMW CEO Harald Krüger and Continental CEO Elmar Degenhart last asked the American ambassador if a removal of European import tariffs on American cars could trump Trump.
New CO2 guidelines “irresponsible”
Osterloh also referred to probably even tougher future rules for exhaust emissions of climate-damaging carbon dioxide (CO2). The EU wants to further reduce the CO2 emissions of cars in the period after 2021. “Not a few of the leading politicians are pushing for stricter regulations that endanger the automotive industry and its jobs,” wrote Osterloh. Workers would indeed support climate protection. “But we do not lose sight of the jobs and will also position ourselves clearly to these irresponsible demands.”
The car manufacturers have already problems to create by 2021 the then applicable limit of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven on average of the new vehicles sold. If they break the guidelines, billions of penalties are threatened. The proposals of the European Commission stipulate that the CO2 emissions of new cars in 2030 should once again be 30 percent lower than in 2021. This is too much for the industry association Acea: It considers a 20 percent reduction in cars to be feasible – below the condition that alternative drives sell better.
A further reduction to 50 or 75 percent is impossible, said Osterloh. “If so decided in the European Parliament, then we can forget about car-building in Germany. That would mean the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, “he warned in the newspaper. Osterloh’s works council colleague Uwe Hück from Porsche said in the “Automobilwoche”: “To be on top of this, is free from any sense for the reality and the challenges that the automobile manufacturers currently have to cope with.”