There could be a rude awakening in the Wolfsburg company headquarters.
(Photo: dpa)
Stuttgart With the announcement that it would build the powertrain for electric cars itself, Volkswagen shook up the automotive suppliers. The move is understandable for three reasons: Europe’s largest carmaker wants solutions from a single source, as Tesla has shown. It attracts returns, because the drive train, including the power electronics, is the most valuable system in an electric car after the battery.
In addition, jobs could be secured in VW’s own component plants. Because tens of thousands of jobs will be lost during the transformation due to the lower complexity of e-cars.
In such technological upheavals, car manufacturers are next to themselves. But the path of insourcing will not lead to the goal. The previous laws of the industry speak against it.
The domain of the large automotive suppliers is to produce components in large quantities for several customers at low cost. You learn from job to job. Even Europe’s largest car company might have difficulties keeping up in terms of quantities, timing and costs.
If VW succeeds in the feat with the powertrain, the previous division of labor in the industry would be overridden. Then you would have to worry about the future of the major suppliers.
Automotive suppliers have great developmental advantages
However, there is a suspicion that VW’s decision has more political than technical or economic reasons. After all, the state of Lower Saxony, as a major VW shareholder with a blocking minority, does not want any mass redundancies on its doorstep. It is therefore an employment policy with dangerous side effects.
Because the consequence will be: Electric cars from Wolfsburg tend to be more expensive given the high cost structures locally. If Volkswagen still wants to live up to its name and offer entry-level models for around 25,000 euros, it becomes even more questionable how the new “do it yourself and alone” tactics can do it economically.
It is also questionable whether VW can do it in the short time of two years. The automotive suppliers have a development lead of many years. When it came to software, the Wolfsburg-based company had already announced that they would program more than half of it themselves. Now, however, this cannot be done without the help of Bosch, for example.
The suppliers take the VW offensive very seriously. Because the new boss of the car manufacturer, Oliver Blume, has the reputation of delivering what he announces. That is why the major suppliers and hitherto most important VW partners are already looking for relief in distant Asia with their finished inverter and thermal management modules.
At the latest when Chinese electric cars with complete drive trains manufactured inexpensively in China by Bosch, ZF or Vitesco come onto the German market, there could be a rude awakening for Blume in Wolfsburg. But then you have to worry more about VW.
More: Volkswagen will lower the starting price for electric cars from the end of March