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Despite emissions scandal, Volkswagen clinches record sales

German carmaker Volkswagen said Wednesday it sold a record number of vehicles in 2017, putting it on track to hold on to the title of world's largest carmaker two years after its "dieselgate" emissions scandal.

Published: 17 January 2018 10:34 CET
Despite emissions scandal, Volkswagen clinches record sales
Photo: DPA

Some 10.74 million vehicles from VW or its subsidiaries ranging from Porsche and Audi to Skoda and Seat rolled out of dealerships last year – an increase of 4.3 percent over the previous year, the carmaker said.

“We are grateful to our customers for the trust these figures reflect,” chief executive Matthias Müller said in a statement.

VW's sales look likely to outstrip Japanese rival Toyota's, whose annual figure for last year is expected to stand at around 10.35 million units.

Nevertheless, the Wolfsburg-based group is still facing a growing challenge from the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, which is targeting 10.5 million combined shipments in 2017.

VW's strong performance underlines its recovery from the blow it was dealt two years ago, when it admitted in September 2015 to cheating regulators' emissions tests on millions of diesel cars worldwide.

It has since begun to rebuild its reputation in some of the world's most important markets, with Chinese sales adding 5.1 percent to 4.2 million vehicles last year and US sales rising 5.8 percent to 625,000 vehicles.

Growth was more spectacular in South America, at 23.7 percent, but sales only reached 522,000 units in absolute terms.

Meanwhile, sales in Central and Eastern Europe including Russia rose by 13.2 percent to 745,000 vehicles.

But growth in Western Europe was more sluggish, with shipments up 1.4 percent at 3.6 million units.

Looking to the group's different brands, generalist VW booked an increase of 4.2 percent to 6.2 million units, while Skoda added 6.6 percent to 1.2 million and Seat 14.6 percent to 468,000 units.

Luxury Porsche shipped 246,000 cars, up 3.6 percent on the year, while Audi fell behind high-end rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz with 0.6-percent growth to 1.9 million sales.

Truckmaking units MAN and Scania both reported 11.6-percent growth.

Looking to the future, Müller said VW was making “decisive investments in the mobility of tomorrow”.

VW announced in November that it would invest more than 34 billion euros ($41 billion) in  future vehicles and technologies – such as electric and hybrid cars, autonomous driving and digitalisation – by 2022.

CARS

From lizards to water, eco-bumps snag Tesla’s giant Berlin car factory

In the green forest outside Berlin, a David and Goliath-style battle is playing out between electric carmaker Tesla and environmental campaigners who want to stop its planned "gigafactory".

Published: 18 April 2021 15:11 CEST
From lizards to water, eco-bumps snag Tesla's giant Berlin car factory
Tesla's gigafactory outside the doors of Berlin. dpa-Zentralbild | Patrick Pleul

“When I saw on TV that the Tesla factory was going to be built here, I couldn’t believe it,” said Steffen Schorch, driving his trusty German-made car.

The 60-year-old from Erkner village in the Berlin commuter belt has become one of the faces of the fight against the US auto giant’s first European factory, due to open in the Brandenburg region near Berlin in July.

“Tesla needs far too much water, and the region does not have this water,” said the environmental activist, a local representative of the Nabu ecologist campaign group.

Announced in November 2019, Tesla’s gigafactory project was warmly welcomed as an endorsement of the “Made in Germany” quality mark – but was immediately met with opposition from local residents.

Demonstrations, legal action, open letters – residents have done everything in their power to delay the project, supported by powerful
environmental campaign groups Nabu and Gruene Liga.

Tesla was forced to temporarily suspend forest clearing last year after campaigners won an injunction over threats to the habitats of resident lizards and snakes during their winter slumber.

READ MORE: Is Germany’s Volkswagen becoming ‘the new Tesla’ as it ramps up e-vehicle production?

And now they have focused their attention on water consumption – which could reach up to 3.6 million cubic metres a year, or around 30 percent of the region’s available supply, according to the ZDF public broadcaster.

The extra demand could place a huge burden on a region already affected by water shortages and hit by summer droughts for the past three years.

Local residents and environmentalists are also concerned about the impact on the wetlands, an important source of biodiversity in the region.

Tesla Street

“The water situation is bad, and will get worse,” Heiko Baschin, a spokesman for the neighbourhood association IG Freienbrink, told AFP.

Brandenburg’s environment minister Axel Vogel sought to play down the issue, saying in March that “capacity has not been exceeded for now”.

But the authorities admit that “the impact of droughts is significant” and have set up a working group to examine the issue in the long term.

The gigafactory is set to sprawl over 300 hectares – equivalent to approximately 560 football fields – southwest of the German capital.

Tesla is aiming to produce 500,000 electric vehicles a year at the plant, which will also be home to “the largest battery factory in the world”,
according to group boss Elon Musk.

In a little over a year and a half, swathes of coniferous forest have already been cleared to make way for vast concrete rectangles on a red earth base, accessed via the already iconic Tesla Strasse (Tesla Street).

German bureaucracy

The new site still has only provisional construction permits, but Tesla has been authorised by local officials to begin work at its own risk.

Final approval depends on an assessment of the project’s environmental impact – including the issue of water.

In theory, if approval is not granted, Tesla will have to dismantle the entire complex at its own expense.

But “pressure is being exerted (on the regulatory authorities), linked to Tesla’s significant investment”, Gruene Liga’s Michael Greschow told AFP.

In early April, Tesla said it was “irritated” by the slow pace of German bureaucracy, calling for exceptions to the rules for projects that help the environment.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier agreed in April that his government “had not done enough” to reduce bureaucracy, lauding the gigafactory as a “very important project”.

Despite Germany’s reputation for efficiency, major infrastructure projects are often held up by bureaucracy criticised as excessive by the business community.

Among the most embarrassing examples are Berlin’s new airport which opened last October after an eight-year delay and Stuttgart’s new train station, which has been under construction since 2010.

Brandenburg’s economy minister, Joerg Steinbach, raised the possibility in February that the Tesla factory could be delayed beyond its July planned opening for the same reason.

SEE ALSO: Tesla advertises over 300 jobs for new Gigafactory near Berlin

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