Volkswagen To End Production At German Plant, a First In Company History (nytimes.com) 43
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: The last vehicle will roll off the assembly line at Volkswagen's plant in Dresden, Germany, on Tuesday, marking the first time in the automaker's 88-year history that it has closed a plant in its home country. Volkswagen warned of potential production cuts last year, as it faced shaky demand in Europe and China, its biggest market, as well as higher tariffs that have crimped sales in the United States.
After 24 years of vehicle production, the Dresden plant will be converted into a research hub focused on technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and chip design. Volkswagen will team up with the government of the state of Saxony and the Dresden University of Technology on the project at the plant, known as the Transparent Factory because of its glass walls. "We did not take the decision to end vehicle production at the Transparent Factory after more than 20 years lightly," Thomas Schafer, chief executive of the Volkswagen brand, said in a statement. "From an economic perspective, however, it was absolutely necessary."
After 24 years of vehicle production, the Dresden plant will be converted into a research hub focused on technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and chip design. Volkswagen will team up with the government of the state of Saxony and the Dresden University of Technology on the project at the plant, known as the Transparent Factory because of its glass walls. "We did not take the decision to end vehicle production at the Transparent Factory after more than 20 years lightly," Thomas Schafer, chief executive of the Volkswagen brand, said in a statement. "From an economic perspective, however, it was absolutely necessary."
China (Score:3, Informative)
Re: China (Score:5, Informative)
In the early 70s my grandfather would turn his nose up at Japanese appliances. His gold standard were German products. Just the way my generation turned our noses up at Chinese goods, preferring Japanese and later Korean.
And so it goes.
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I still remember my father arguing with my grandfather about who had the most reliable car. Grandpa had his Series 1 VW Golf which was at the time one of the pinnacles of German reliability on the road in the small car segment and at the time Japanese cars were rubbish. Fast forward a few decades and my dad on the bought me a Toyota Corolla with 380,000km on the odometer which I sold sold with over 500,000km on it after I couldn't kill it in perfect working order. This despite the fact the timing belt was
Germany de-industrialization (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re: Germany de-industrialization (Score:5, Insightful)
Can't trust the old stuff not to fail, can't trust the new stuff not to fail or spy on you, but I can trust my ability to replace capacitors
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Sheesh, if this keeps up, who's going to pay for the New Germans?? Please think of the immigrants before gutting your tax base.
Cause and Effect (Score:1)
This and many other highly negative consequences Germany experiencing due to high energy costs.
Funny that. Germany has deindustrialized itself by sanctioning Russia, refusing the cheap Russian energy they were totally dependent on, and allowing Biden's threatened "there will no longer be a Nordstream 2 , we will bring an end to it" without so much as a whimper. But no worries, they've been graciously allowed to buy very expensive LNG from the US in the meantime. Is Germany winning yet?
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Is Germany winning yet?
Yes they are. Unless your definition of winning is sucking on Putin's dick while he beats you. That may be fun for you if you're a worthless whore, but I don't think most people in Europe consider that "winning".
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>"This and many other highly negative consequences Germany experiencing due to high energy costs."
And the flood of Chinese vehicles being allowed into Europe and elsewhere (still not the USA, though).
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Oh. The media made it sound like a lot more. But it has the potential to be a LOT more and FAST if they don't slap on high tariffs or limit the numbers.
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But on the plus side you can say Merry Christmas now.
Re: Germany de-industrialization (Score:3)
"Volkswagen warned of potential production cuts last year, as it faced shaky demand in Europe and China, its biggest market, as well as higher tariffs that have crimped sales in the United States.
After 24 years of vehicle production, the Dresden plant will be converted into a research hub focused on technologies like artificial intelligence ..."
Is "high energy costs" a hallucination or a troll?
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Is "high energy costs" a hallucination or a troll?
I'm going for "troll" although there are industries which are suffering from high energy costs - certain industrial processes require lots of power. You'll notice that AI computer centres are springing up in Germany, and if there's ever a business which should suffer from energy costs it is that one.
VW used to have a plant in Westmoreland PA, it was active from 1978 to 1987 and they closed it because it was losing too much money. There were two main reasons it was losing money:
1 - Ronald Reagan's administ
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Their energy costs are typical for Western Europe. The only ones significantly cheaper have already done what Germany is doing - installed a lot of renewables.
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The grid investment were planned at a time, when battery storage was not viable, and is by many deemed to be excessive, as the average load of the grid is about 15% of the capacity.
Another quirk is that German regulations are currently paying a renewable energy provider for the potential amount of energy, not
Kissinger-attributed quote in context Re:Duh... (Score:2)
First, there's no absolute proof that Kissinger said this. But he had decades to refute it but didn't, so let's assume he did.
In any case, context is critical.
Here's the quote in context, (words attributed to Kissinger in bold) from snopes.com [snopes.com]:
In the story, Buckley recalled meeting Kissinger in the mid-1950s, writing, "We have been friends for many years." The in-question quote appeared later in the article, after Buckley detailed some developments that occurred before and after Richard Nixon accepted the Republican Party's nomination for U.S. president at the 1968 Republican National Convention.
Buckley mentioned the quote in the context of references to two former South Vietnamese presidents, including Ngo Dinh Diem, who served from 1955 until his assassination in a 1963 coup, and Nguyen Van Thieu, who held office from 1967 to 1975.
Describing the situation in late 1968 during the Vietnam Warâ" a decades-long conflict between the U.S. and communist-backed North Vietnam that lasted from 1955 to 1975 â"Buckley wrote:
In late November, I was lecturing in Los Angeles. Kissinger reached me by phone. That day Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford had blasted Thieu for taking so adamant a stand on the requisite shape of the bargaining table in Paris. I still have the notes I took.
"Nixon should be told," Kissinger said, "that it is probably an objective of Clifford to depose Thieu before Nixon is inaugurated. Word should be gotten to Nixon that if Thieu meets the same fate as Diem, the word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."
I telephoned New York, a personal meeting was set up between Kissinger and the President-elect, and a week or so later my phone rang. "You will never be able to say again that you have no contact inside the White House."
Surprised this didn't happen sooner (Score:4, Funny)
All I know about Volkswagon is they're a car company who deliberately cheated on their emissions tests.
No surprise their demand is falling away due to past outright illegal conduct.
Their license to manufacture a single new unit should have been cancelled the day this was found out. So I don't feel sorry for them.. surprised They did not have a complete shutdown imposed by the government sooner.
Re:Surprised this didn't happen sooner (Score:5, Informative)
Automakers who have been caught using a defeat device within a diesel vehicle, in a similar manner to Volkswagen include: Jeep and Ram under FCA[403] (now a part of Stellantis), Opel[404] (when under GM), and Mercedes-Benz.[405]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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This is the page you meant to link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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No surprise their demand is falling away due to past outright illegal conduct.
You should be surprised. People throughout Europe don't give one iota of a shit about this. For the most people people don't even remember the details of what happened, and even people who drove VWs at the time got a nice payout (all the customers saw was extra "free" money)
VW is failing now because their cars aren't compelling, they are years behind the competition in many aspects, and because the future was seen to be electric while VW dragged their feet playing catchup pushing more and more ICE vehicles
Sure, but... (Score:3)
They should not have made racist commercials (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
\o/ (Score:1)
Maybe the AI can be more effective at faking emission tests then more of the world's people can be killed covertly whilst VW profit from dishonest and immorality - again.
Inevitable (Score:2)
How could the plant continue to operate after the allies bombed the shit out of it?
Wrong product palette (Score:2)
In my eyes, one of the main issues pretty much all automakers have is that they are selling cars that don't really fit what their customers actually want. Where have the small cars gone? Where have the family vans gone? Where are the simple, no frills cars? Which customer actually wants anything like automated driving, which they seem to strive for? Any features requiring some sort of subscription? Why oh why must almost every new car be a SUV?
For VW, in the european markets, an example of a car dearly miss
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Very much deserved! (Score:2)
The arrogant hubris and high horse riding finally turns to finding-out and it could not have affected a more deserving org than VWG.
It seems the smoldering hole in the ground left by cariad was not lesson enough. Getting pampered by mama merkel for rampant engine-control and emission fraud was not humbling enough, instead enabled them in their f##kery.
The arrogant, overly well paid managers turn out to be nothing but weak, clueless and antiquated; and decades of German politicians bowing to steel and automo
88 years? (Score:2)
Volkswagen opened its Dresden factory, the Gläserne Manufaktur or Transparent Factory, in December 2001, with the official inauguration on 11 December 2001.
It was conceived less as a mass-production plant and more as a prestige site, combining car assembly with architecture, public access and brand theatre.
The first model built there was the VW Phaeton, assembled largely by hand, in full view of visitors.
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I'm saddened that it's no longer going to be
low q (Score:2)
VWs invariably score poorly in Consumer Reports reliability ratings, as do most European cars. Not clear why anyone in the US would buy them over equally poor US cars, much less far better Japanese cars.
Repurpose ... (Score:2)
"the Dresden plant will be converted into a research hub focused on technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and chip design. Volkswagen will team up with the government of the state of Saxony and the Dresden University of Technology on the project at the plant"
After 24 years of auto production, this factory is probably obsolete in many ways. Makes sense to convert it to a research hub.
Dresden ist Ost. (Score:2)
It is worth noting that the plant being closed is in the former DDR, East Germany. Sad to say, but there are still ramifications of the communist era there. I lived in West Germany before the wall came down, and have been back several times since. The East has gotten a lot better, but even last year when I visited, the East and West are not the same.
One of the most striking things was seeing the support for AfD in the eastern towns I visited. Not entirely surprising considering the economic squeeze.