The Chairman of the Board of Volkswagen AG, Oliver Blume, has set a profit target that Volkswagen has never achieved in its history. Blume told the Bild-Zeitung that the company aims to sell around nine million vehicles globally by 2030, achieving a nine percent return. He stated that such an achievement has never occurred in the history of the Volkswagen Group.
The VW CEO defended the planned reduction of over 100,000 jobs in the group, asserting that it is not a drastic cut as sometimes suggested. The group is investing billions, including for severance agreements. Blume stated that the biggest cost gap lies in wages, noting that the German locations have labor costs approximately twice as high as in other European countries.
Although the market shrank by 20 percent this year, the VW CEO said that China is still not a lost market. VW is now producing there at the cost level of Chinese manufacturers.
Blume explained why he took the job, referencing a sentence from his daughter: Do it for the people. Despite all the problems, the group chief said that concerning Germany, they have all the foundations to be satisfied.
The VW CEO noted that over 80 percent of his compensation is performance-related. He does not anticipate an imminent drop in gasoline prices.
