Volkswagen passenger car boss fires scary warning at SA government

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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Volkswagen passenger car boss fires scary warning at SA government

Volkswagen's global passenger car boss has expressed concern over the future viability of the German automotive giant's operations in South Africa, Reuters reports.

On Friday, Volkswagen Passenger Car CEO Thomas Schäfer said factors like the country's competitive labour costs once put the South African factory among the manufacturer's best performers globally.
 
This should be a very serious wake up call for the Eastern Cape government. If VW pulls out it will have a disastrous impact on the local economy as it is all the other smaller manufacturers feeding into VW will also be closing - think about the tyre's, the upholstery, the lighting manufacturers to mention a few... Man this is scary and hopefully a wake up call for all to get their act together!
 
Labour costs does not automatically mean cost of salaries.

It's also all the red tape that is involved with employing people in South Africa. BEE and AA being some of the most arduous

But it pales in comparison to the Eskom and Transnet problems.
 
op365 said:
This should be a very serious wake up call for the Eastern Cape government. If VW pulls out it will have a disastrous impact on the local economy as it is all the other smaller manufacturers feeding into VW will also be closing - think about the tyre's, the upholstery, the lighting manufacturers to mention a few... Man this is scary and hopefully a wake up call for all to get their act together!
Click to expand...
This should be a very serious wake-up call to the voters in all provinces.

VW employs 3500 staff. That's an equivalent of 100 small businesses employing 35 staff each.

I'm sure more than that have gone under because of loadhsedding and overall government inability to provide services.

When a big employer threatens to pull out, everyone takes notice. When 100s of small employers "pull out" all the time, nobody seems to notice.
 
do what they did in Ukraine, with all the Renault factories,after the invasion

pull out of SA, leave the factory to get snapped up by the Chinese on the Cheap,
who dont care about rules and laws and safety standards.

and make essentially the exact same thing, with a weird badge thats a copy of the Polo from 10 years ago.

Chinese dont care who they copy, and if it holds up long enough
 
Honestly I suggested they move it to China or India like everyone else has. Or Brazil. It makes no financial sense to keep it here.
 
Jet-Fighter7700 said:
do what they did in Ukraine, with all the Renault factories,after the invasion

pull out of SA, leave the factory to get snapped up by the Chinese on the Cheap,
who dont care about rules and laws and safety standards.

and make essentially the exact same thing, with a weird badge thats a copy of the Polo from 10 years ago.

Chinese dont care who they copy, and if it holds up long enough
Click to expand...
That was a war time. Here they would pack up all the machinery and move it all via ships to their next build location. And leave an empty factory. Thats generally how they do it.
 
Ouch. Some tough words indeed.

I mean one of the reasons to produce locally is that otherwise they need to pay import tax on the finished vehicle. This way they save a little.
Plus with the unsustainably high import tax on EVs I share his sentiments. It will take some time for EVs to actually sell at volume in this country.

If they consolidate their operations somewhere else and the price of a Polo goes up locally by a bit so what…it’s not like they were selling millions a year locally
 
Paulsie said:
This should be a very serious wake-up call to the voters in all provinces.

VW employs 3500 staff. That's an equivalent of 100 small businesses employing 35 staff each.

I'm sure more than that have gone under because of loadhsedding and overall government inability to provide services.

When a big employer threatens to pull out, everyone takes notice. When 100s of small employers "pull out" all the time, nobody seems to notice.
Click to expand...
You have to look at their sales volumes. Most automotive factories runs on robotics. So 3500 may seem little, but its more closer to 135 000 worker with the amount of robots they use.

Here. This is generally how it goes....

 
op365 said:
This should be a very serious wake up call for the Eastern Cape government. If VW pulls out it will have a disastrous impact on the local economy as it is all the other smaller manufacturers feeding into VW will also be closing - think about the tyre's, the upholstery, the lighting manufacturers to mention a few... Man this is scary and hopefully a wake up call for all to get their act together!
Click to expand...
And yet, I'm not holding my breath. The EC gvt cadres are very comfortable :).
 
My prediction: cANCer doesn't care if they leave. Hell, they don't care if everybody leaves. The votas? Well they don't understand how a tap works, never mind an economy.

For an intelligent person living in this country, it's like wading through treacle while hot coals constantly rain down on your head.
 
Be patient comrades. Almost there. Just a little bit further now.

depositphotos_64093285-stock-photo-african-village.jpg
 
Can we now remove the legislation that we can't import used cars? I'd like myself some nice well-priced secondhand Japanese cars. I'm sick of seeing overpriced secondhand City Golfs and 'undamaged' 3 series BMWs on the market for R50k+
 
Unfortunately our stupid labour laws make South African companies the biggest charities in the country. Just try firing someone and then you'll see what a charity is.
 
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