this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2026
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Well, in Germany VW (the second largest automobile manufacturer in the world) now is laying off a significant portion of their employees, closing factories and even selling them off to US/Israeli weapons manufacturers. Their head also already signaled VW is being open to switch to weapons manufacturing. Pretty sure other German brands are in similar peril.
Traditional manufacturers are dead.
You mean Volks "we don't even make an effort for our cars to obbey emission rules and instead we cheated" wagen is having trouble staying afloat?!
I wonder how such a high quality company which was not at all doing funny business and using political connections is having trouble competing with those who just offer better products at lower prices ...
Volkswagen has made a ton of dumb mistakes, but among the worst are paying union wages and not getting super cheap lithium batteries from being located in a country that has a well integrated supply chain.
We don't want to mine or refine lithium as much in the EU because "boohoo muh environment" but really, if we want to compete with China we can't let the environment be a deciding factor. Mine and refine all the resources we need instead of buying them from China and letting them dictate the prices. China doesn't give a fuck about small issues standing in its way and neither should we.
"We can't let the environment be a deciding factor" is a preposterous take. There's practically nothing more important that preserving the environment. Even the Chinese are looking beyond their borders for raw materials these days. If it costs more to extract raw materials in a way that doesn't fuck up the environment, then subsidize it and pay for it. We can fund the subsidies with a carbon tax.