The VW Group lacks Sufficient Orders It comes as no surprise that VW’s existing overcapacity is a major problem; any other company would have long since closed plants and laid off staff, but VW is partly a political entity and cannot act as a purely commercial enterprise might wish. Political influence was a strength during times of growth, but it is now a major weakness during times of contraction. VW CEO Blume states that a shutdown of the plants in Emden, Hanover, Zwickau, and the Audi site in Neckarsulm has not yet been decided. It remains a last resort, and one that is always the most expensive in the short term. At the same time, he acknowledged that "we cannot yet present a competitive production plan for the 2030s" for these four sites, meaning VW lacks sufficient orders to keep them running. This is despite the fact that the Zwickau factory, for instance, is considered a pioneer of electric mobility within Volkswagen; only electric vehicles have been built there since 2020. However, because demand for the models produced there has recently been too low, the workforce has already shrunk from 11,000 to the current 8,000. Furthermore, plans to cut more than 1,000 additional jobs have already been finalized, and one of the two production lines is scheduled to be shut down next year. I anticipate that all four sites will have to be shut down over the coming years.