VW Is Talking Itself Down, Says Hanover Mayor Onay

Hanover Mayor Belit Onay says Volkswagen's management is talking down its own products and weakening the future of the company's German sites. He reacted angrily to the supervisory board's decision to tighten the cost-cutting drive, as well as to the way Volkswagen has communicated it.

“

It cannot be true that the board of a German company gives up on Germany as an industrial location without a fight.

“It cannot be true that the board of a German company gives up on Germany as an industrial location without a fight,” said Onay, a Green Party politician. He said Volkswagen did not need managers who simply repeated that the company had to cut costs, save money and eliminate jobs. “We need people who can develop a clear perspective,” he said.

Onay also rejected the idea that the Hanover plant might be redirected toward defense production, as could happen at Volkswagen's Osnabrück site. “That is currently a sham debate. We have absolutely no indication which companies or products that would involve,” he said. The Hanover Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles site, he added, is designed for civilian vehicles.

“

We need people who can develop a clear perspective.

The mayor sees considerable potential in the plant's focus on commercial vehicles, including the ID.Buzz. Chinese producers are not yet as strong in that market, making it “absolutely incomprehensible” to him that Volkswagen would fail to use its expertise. He said the latest debate had merely postponed decisions by several months or a year, without creating security for the site.

“

That is currently a sham debate. We have absolutely no indication which companies or products that would involve.

Onay warned that continued criticism and weakening of the plant could have “immense social consequences.” Volkswagen employs 12,200 people there, he said, in addition to workers at supplier companies. A closure would therefore be “massive damage” for Hanover.

“

That would be massive damage.