Team-BHP - VW warns of 20,000 job cuts

However, the news isn't as grim as the title of the thread suggests. Sales are up 7% and net profits are up 61% from 697 million euros to 1.1 billion euros beating analysts expectations. However, Pischetsrieder believes earnings are still unsatisfactory and money saved from this restructuring will help them launch new US specific (Read that as Minivan) models to increase their US market share.

In news which should be of interest to India, Fiat SpA reported a profit of 1.33 billion euro's compared to a loss of 1.63 billion euros in 2004.

VW's restructuring and Renault and Fiat results

I think alongwith US, VW should seriously look at India too cuz this is where the bulk of cars are going to be sold. They already are no.2 in China and if they have any sense, they should start manufacturing cars in India so that they can price them at realistic levels. No point being a niche or luxury car maker and selling a few hundred units every year when you have cars that can sell way more.

Came across this interesting article on VW's restructuring programme that paid some dividends in 2005 but what surprised me in the article was how VW's german plants still make losses and how low the productivity is. It's time VW took a serious look at how Toyota and Honda operate their plants instead of spending millions on their own restructuring programmes.