Autobauer: Die drei Illusionen der Volkswagen-Mächtigen

The briefing opens with an in-depth look at Volkswagen's crisis, framing it around three collective illusions held by different power groups within the company. Management believed incremental savings and efficiency programs would be sufficient to turn the company around. Worker representatives imagined VW could gradually improve its way to sustaining its many expensive production sites. And the majority shareholders — the Porsche and Piëch families — assumed that rotating managers in and out of Wolfsburg without a clear strategic vision would somehow resolve the issues. A 160-page restructuring paper, prepared by VW's board with consulting firm BCG and set to be discussed at an upcoming supervisory board meeting, lays bare the scale of the problem: VW's factories collectively produce over one million more cars per year than the company actually sells, the equivalent of four fully redundant plants. The paper specifically names the VW plants in Emden and Zwickau, the commercial vehicles plant in Hanover, and the Audi plant in Neckarsulm as surplus capacity. An insider characterizes the approach of CEO Oliver Blume as one where problems are named but not truly solved.

On US politics, the briefing draws a sharp and sardonic parallel between the Trump administration and a mediocre Netflix series, noting that unlike Netflix, Trump blurs the line between fiction and reality. The Iran situation is highlighted as an example of theatrical diplomacy — alternating signals about negotiations with contradictory statements — with the editorial conclusion that any real movement in the conflict will come from Iranian initiative, not Trump's.

In Germany, a phishing campaign targeting senior politicians including Bundestag President Julia Klöckner and ministers Karin Prien and Verena Huberts via the Signal messaging app is discussed. The German government suspects Russia is behind the attack, which exploited user error rather than any weakness in Signal itself. The briefing wryly concludes that Signal is secure — the vulnerability is the human using it.

On trade policy, the briefing references a paper by the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft and an interview with French presidential advisor Clément Bourne, both advocating for a tougher European stance against US and Chinese trade practices, including potential retaliatory tariffs. Bourne argues that Chinese industrial and economic competition poses a gigantic and lasting threat to Europe, that Chinese products often match or exceed European quality at 30–40% lower prices, and that Europe needs a blend of French protectionism and German free-trade instincts.

In company news, Tesla's Grünheide plant manager boasted at the Hannover Messe that sick leave had dropped from 17% to 5%, attributing it to perks like stock programs, a gym, and a barbershop. However, the briefing notes that Tesla reportedly stopped recognizing follow-up sick notes and suspended pay in such cases, and required employees to waive doctor-patient confidentiality — practices hard to reconcile with German labor law. Despite the claimed improvement, Tesla's Grünheide workforce has shrunk by nearly 14% in two years and car production there fell by over 30% in 2025.

Finally, the briefing notes a dramatic reversal in luxury goods stocks, which had long been considered recession-proof. Since mid-February 2025, luxury sector stocks have fallen roughly 25% on average, while the broader Stoxx Europe 600 gained about 16% — a sign that even the wealthiest consumers are pulling back amid geopolitical and economic uncertainty.