Volkswagen Will Eliminate Almost Half of Production Models After Losing Market Share to China

https://theconservativetreehouse.com ^ | July 10, 2026 | Sundance

[bitt]

The European auto industry is a case study on how short-sighted trade policy goals, results in consequences.

Previously, German auto companies like Volkswagen entered into trade agreements with China and began manufacturing their vehicles with immediate financial success in the market. However, it did not take long for Chinese auto companies to reverse the engineering and begin to deliver the same quality vehicles at much lower prices.

The Chinese then stop purchasing the Volkswagen vehicles and purchase the cheaper version, while simultaneously begin exporting those same vehicles into the home market from where the technology originated.

Today, with a double-digit decline in production, Volkswagen announces they will cut almost half of their models due to diminished sales.

BLOOMBERG – BERLIN — Volkswagen reported weak sales numbers on Friday, a day after the giant German automaker announced plans to slash the number of models by nearly half as sales plunged, particularly in China.

The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said group sales fell 8.6 per cent in the second quarter to just under 2.1 million vehicles, with sales in China alone plummeted by more than one-third.

After a board meeting on Thursday, Volkswagen said its “fundamental realignment” over the last three years had reached its next phase, announcing plans to streamline the model lineup by up to half, without providing specifics.

CEO Oliver Blume laid out plans to make VW faster and more competitive through less complexity, focused technologies, better alignment across regional markets and reduction of overcapacities, among other things, citing an “increasingly demanding environment.”

Among its main brands, the core Volkswagen unit saw deliveries of slightly over 1 million vehicles in the second quarter, a drop of 14 per cent from a year earlier. Deliveries at Audi declined 8 per cent and those at Porsche fell 18 per cent. (read more)

Maybe Canada will take note, likely they will not.

The only way to avoid this issue is to protect the domestic market. As soon as you open your market to this claimed reciprocity (panda face), it will not take long until the mask drops, and you notice the dragon face behind it.

MORE..

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: china; deathtraps; eussr; fourthreich; htlrwagen; marketshare; redchina; volkswagen

[bitt]

P

[Celtic Conservative]

“Quality vehicles” and “China” do not go together. Most of the cars they make look nice, but are not particularly durable or reliable.

CC

[Paal Gulli]

JAMBOG!

Posted two days ago:

Volkswagen Will Eliminate Almost Half of Production Brands After Losing Market Share to China

07/10/2026 8:48:20 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 49 replies
Conservative Treehouse ^ | July 10, 2026 | Sundance

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4387528/posts

Identical source, identical story, two days ago.

Search function still works.

[Leaning Right]

Germany, less industry.
More Muslims.

That might end well. But I really doubt it.

[PGR88]

However, it did not take long for Chinese auto companies to reverse the engineering and begin to deliver the same quality vehicles at much lower prices.

Trump helped business awake from the Chamber of Commerce Chinese fever-dream

It's not just that Chinese are smart, and work hard. Yes, that's true

But the entire Chinese Communist economic eco-system for foreign investment for the last 45 years has been to bring in foreigners and their technology, learn from it, steal it, copy it - and then kick your foreign-devil ass out.

They want create state-controlled local winners, and use overt or covert special terms on finance, taxation, govt contracts, lawfare, labor-environmental labor regulations, etc. etc.

Stupid westerners think they are there competing on equal terms. Its an absolutely foolish belief.

[FLT-bird]

The EU should slap very very tough tariffs and trade conditions on China that negate any cost or other advantage they have.....y’know kinda like China does for foreign companies entering their market when they force them to hand over all their technology and know-how.

That’s a very short term deal with the devil because you know they’re going to steal your IP and then undercut you on price not only there but in your home market as well.

[HombreSecreto]

VW, bring back the circa 1960s bug and bus models.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

幸灾乐祸

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Dumbass GM did the same thing in China with SAIC. Now SAIC is bigger than GM. SAIC cleared out all of GM's intellectual property besides.

[Leaning Right]

> Posted two days ago <

I don’t see a problem there. Many FReepers stop by here to quickly check on a few recent stories. We just don’t scroll back two or three days.

Now, if an article was posted right after an identical one, that would be a totally different story.

I get that not everyone agrees with my perceptive. That’s what the Report Abuse button is for.

[fuzzylogic]

Cheaper labor, stolen IP, and selling at a loss subsidized by the CCP. You can’t compete with that.

The German government is literally destroying the country.

I’ve heard the government buys lots of them and just parks them, unused...this goes toward their “sales” figures, making them look more popular than they are.

The only good news, this can’t last.

[Lockbox]

The German car industry is dead, but no one will declare it at this time. The Chinese learned the modern methods of car manufacturing and cars sales since China required Chinese parters for the German manufacturers in China. Now the Chinese are destroying the Chinese market for German cars. Also Chinese exports cars to Germany. They have undercut the German car prices so much that German car sales are sinking. German car companies are talking plant closures, layoff workers, cancel brands, etc. Important news is the Chinese will start to build cars in those same plants. This does two things, one no tariff and two a benefit for building cars in Europe. This equals a cost saving of 27%! The Chinese are destroying the European car market for European car companies from building shipping cars from China with European tariffs to pay. What will happen when they have a 27% reduction in costs?

Currently VW has an 8,000 DM cost disadvantage to the shipped in Chinese built cars. If VW lays off 100,000 workers (good luck with that plan) the disadvantage lowers to 7000 DM. But when the Chinese build cars in Europe the Chinese will have a 27% cost decrease! The Germans MFGs, their union and government will be destroyed!

[bitt]

“Identical source, identical story, two days ago.
Search function still works.”

~~~~~~~

HAHA, the rule is more like 2 HOURS, mi amigo....
For those who, like me, missed the first post TWO DAYS AGO, perhaps this is informative.

What’s with your vituperative Karen response, hmmmmmmm????????

[GingisK]

I really want my 1963 Beetle back.

[rdcbn1]

Back in the day when the conventional wisdom was that every company needed. “ a China strategy “ I was a consultant on setting up production in China

My advice - do not off shore to China to set up foreign production for US export, set up in China if you wish to participate in the growth of the Chinese internal markets

If you just tried to jobs shop in China you would just teach them how to build your product and as soon as they learn how, all the good people would start companies to compete with you

Of course, management only saw how totally unskilled and ignorant Chinese worker were at the time so they totally underestimated And actively dismissed the capabilities of the Chinese

Having worked with them, I was under no illusions- I had den just how smart and talented they could be

Corporate America and EU really sold their Crown Jewels for short term profits and it’s killing us and them in the now arriving long term

One would think that they American managers would have learned their lesson with their dismissive attitude towards Japan in the 1950s and 1960s but but they didn’t and they transferred their technology, knowledge base and know how so throughly that they destroyed their domestic industry and domestic knowledge base so much that many US and EU companies can no longer compete with their Asian counterparts

[bitt]

Thanks!

[Nervous Tick]

I agree with you.

[Leaning Right]

To which I’d add:

FReeper posts are absolutely the lifeblood of this site. No posts = no site.

And it’s a pain in the neck to post an article. You’ve got to get everything just right. No complaints from me with that. It’s the way it should be.

Nevertheless, posting takes time and effort.
That should be respected.
Because, no posts = no site.

[Nervous Tick]

I miss my ‘66 bus. I could roll the engine out with a modified floor jack in 10-15 minutes.