The speaker sarcastically reacts to recent news, stating that despite claims of Volkswagen being "totally fine," the company is facing significant challenges, highlighted by **potential job cuts of up to 100,000 employees**. VW CEO Oliver Blume has reportedly admitted that the company's **business model "wasn't working anymore."**
The speaker outlines several reasons for VW's precarious situation:
1. **China Market Decline for VW:**
* VW's largest market, China, is in decline for the company, with **local Chinese manufacturers taking over market share**.
* The Chinese automotive market is the **world's leading and most mature EV market**, indicating a global trend.
* VW failed to adapt by not producing "compelling, affordable electric vehicles," unlike Chinese companies offering EVs for **around $10,000-$15,000 USD**.
* **Tesla's Model Y** is cited as a counter-example, frequently being a top-selling vehicle of any kind in China, despite its high price, proving a foreign company can succeed with a compelling EV product.
2. **European Market & Regulatory Burdens:**
* European consumers are "on the back foot," and VW faces "a lot of regulatory burdens."
3. **VW's Internal Structural Issues:**
* The company's **ownership structure is described as "an absolute mess"** due to multiple stakeholders.
* **Porsche (a sub-brand)** is the dominant controlling shareholder in terms of voting rights.
* Crucially, the **German state (government) owns a massive stake and has voting rights** in Volkswagen, contributing to extreme bureaucracy in an already bureaucratic country and continent.
* The influence of **labor representatives** makes job cuts and significant restructuring exceedingly difficult and expensive (e.g., "10 billion dollars redundancy payment").
4. **Chinese Competition in Europe & EU Policy:**
* **Chinese car makers are rapidly capturing more of the European market**, reaching a **record market share above 10%** for the first time.
* This surge is "especially led by hybrid cars," which the speaker claims is due to the **EU imposing tariffs on *fully electric* cars in 2024**, prompting Chinese manufacturers to shift to hybrid offerings to circumvent these tariffs. He calls this EU decision "retarded" and "counterproductive."
* The EU is discussing potential countermeasures like **tariffs on hybrid and plug-in vehicles** and "Made in Europe" policies under the "Industrial Accelerator Act," which could require manufacturers to produce more vehicles locally.
* **Stellantis** is noted to have a deal with **Leapmotor** to manufacture Opel vehicles using Chinese technology in Spain.
The speaker then extensively quotes his own predictions from videos dating back to November 2020, asserting he consistently foresaw Volkswagen's (and other legacy automakers') downfall, bankruptcy, and the necessity of massive job cuts due to bureaucracy, lack of urgency, and failure to embrace EVs. He highlights the "lag factor" between his predictions and VW taking action, concluding that **Volkswagen and other large legacy auto companies are "cooked," have "fatal wounds," and will not survive the decade**, as the actions needed years ago have not been taken.