Just when you think there can’t be any worse news coming from German automakers, someone from the VW Group comes along and proves that there can be. This time, Audi CEO Gernot Döllner took it upon himself to do just that and caused quite a stir. Just under two weeks before the U.S. midterm elections, the Audi boss made his way to a campaign rally for President Donald Trump, and after Trump’s xenophobic, racist, and sexist speech—laced with lies and hate speech—Döllner stepped up to the podium and announced a four-billion investment in a new Audi plant in the U.S. state of Georgia. The embattled and unpopular American president didn’t let this opportunity to boost his campaign slip by, and he made a point of showing Döllner—who didn’t even realize it—that the punitive tariffs against Germany had clearly worked, and that even the Germans are now begging and pleading to throw money and jobs at Trump’s feet.
The violation of VW’s internal rules—which prohibit joint appearances with politicians and parties running for office three months before an election—isn’t even the biggest problem here. The announced plant is not intended to manufacture electric cars, but exclusively Audi SUVs with gasoline and diesel engines. These are reportedly the Audi Q7, Q8, and Q9 models, with 200,000 units per year to be built by 4,500 new employees, while an estimated 15,000 Audi employees in Neckarsulm are expected to lose their jobs starting in 2030.
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Künstliche Intelligenz wird sichtbar. In „Homo Syntheticus“ beschreibt Zukunftsforscher Dr. Mario Herger den Aufbruch in ein neues Zeitalter, in dem Maschinen nicht mehr nur denken, sondern fühlen, handeln und lernen. Humanoide Roboter mit künstlicher Haut und autonomem Bewusstsein treten in unser Leben – als Helfer, Kollegen, vielleicht Partner. Gleichzeitig erweitern wir Menschen uns selbst: durch Implantate, Schnittstellen und KI im Körper. Mensch und Maschine nähern sich an, verschmelzen – und stellen unsere Vorstellung von Identität, Ethik und Fortschritt auf die Probe. Ein faszinierender Blick auf die Ära des synthetischen Menschen.
Der Spiegel quotes U.S. Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, who said that the Audi plant
would never have happened without business-friendly regulations and without the repeal of California’s fuel-economy standards.
In other words: jobs are being cut in Germany, while in the U.S., Trump is being given a campaign gift by a subservient Audi CEO. At the same time, they’re building a plant not for the future, but to delay it and prolong the past. The factory would never have been possible if Trump hadn’t actively dismantled all environmental protection laws. The plant isn’t expected to be completed until around 2030, and given current gas and diesel prices—and the fact that more electric cars than internal-combustion vehicles were sold this year for the first time—it will likely never reach a capacity of 200,000 internal-combustion vehicles. Not only is the political brown-nosing a disaster for Audi here, but the strategy of clinging so desperately to the internal combustion engine will likely lead the entire company to ruin.
Just how badly Döllner put his foot in his mouth—even within VW—with his Trump-pandering is evident in a report by Der Spiegel. The debate on the VW intranet apparently got so out of hand that VW had to step in and shut down the discussion there. And the first stickers from outraged Audi customers are already starting to appear:
I think we should launch a contest, modeled after the one about former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was in office for just 44 days. “Will Gernot Döllner outlast this wet salad?”
What’s next? The Audi Peace Prize for Trump? A golden Audi for the president?
Or maybe Trump is seeing a doctor for rectal problems? It must already be pretty cramped in there…
This article was also published in German.
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