The auto industry is going through a “dry spell” with no end currently in sight, the chairman of Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, said in comments published on Thursday.
“We have been faced with a weak economy for some time. The financial crisis is working like a turbo. No one can say when we will come out of this valley. But we should prepare ourselves for a dry spell,” Ferdinand Piech told the Bild daily.
“We have always had cycles, sometimes with huge falls. You can always rely on there being a recovery,” added Piech, who is also co-owner of sportscar maker Porsche which plans to increase its 35 percent stake in VW to a majority by the end of the year.
Carmakers have been hit hard by the financial crisis and the ensuing economic slowdown, not just in the United States where Ford, Chrysler and General Motors have been given 25 billion dollars in cheap loans but also in Europe where firms have been forced to cut or suspend production.
Piech said that VW did not want any state subsidies but instead “fairer competition” in the form a Europe-wide emissions rules that make “ecological and economic sense” as well as state incentives to persuade consumers to buy low-emissions vehicles.
