The head of Volkswagen said about the difficult situation of the company

Volkswagen is in critical condition and is inferior to its competitors, as production has not taken into account the dynamic development of the modern world and the changing desires of consumers. This was announced on May 30 by Oliver Blume, CEO of Volkswagen AG.

"We've been resting on our laurels for too long. Our business model — we design and manufacture here for the whole world — has been working for decades. And we realized too late that the world is changing extremely fast and dynamically," Blume said in an interview with the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Among the problems faced by the company, he highlighted the attitude of modern Germans to work and free time. He cited the example of past generations who worked six days a week and "didn't ask about working hours." Now, according to the head of the company, with a 20-hour work week and remote work, it is impossible to achieve achievements.

According to Blume, at the moment, the desires of customers that need to be taken into account in production are increasingly different in individual regions. In addition, the CEO stressed that Volkswagen has lagged behind in new technologies actively introduced by China. At the same time, he said that in the next two years, the corporation will introduce 30 new models in the Chinese market that will not lag behind competitors in technology and cost.

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On April 30, the company announced that the Volkswagen Group's profit after taxes in the first quarter of this year amounted to €2.19 billion. It was clarified that this is 40.6% worse than in the same period last year. Among the reasons, the company's management highlighted increased competition, instability in the commodity, energy and foreign exchange markets, as well as stricter emission requirements.