Remember Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking’s holier-than-you attitude vis-a-vis the US? Wiedeking’s position – which is probably held by a majority of German managers and certainly by practically all German journalists – is that “anglo-saxon” capitalism is an inferior economic strategy as compared to the German “social market economy”.
Then, of course, is the Kyoto debate in Germany, with wild accusations against supposedly anti-environmental policies of Bush and his neo-cons. How admirably and favorably the German philosophy of sustainability compares to these stinking non-caring Americans! Think Schroeder.
Porsche’s chief executive on Friday warned of an impending business war between Germany on one side and France and Italy when he said plans by the European Commission to limit carbon dioxide emissions were an attack on German luxury carmakers.
The outspoken comments by Wendelin Wiedeking at the sports carmaker’s annual meeting underline the nervousness of German carmakers, all of which are a long way above the proposed limits and are much more threatened than the likes of France’s Renault and Peugeot and Italy’s Fiat.
“It is an attack on BMW, Mercedes, Audi and ourselves … This is a business war in Europe. We will fight,” Mr Wiedeking told shareholders.
All four companies produce large luxury cars compared with the smaller ones of Renault, Peugeot and Fiat. In an extreme case, industry executives believe strict limits would threaten the existence of luxury carmakers.
The European Commission says it is committed to cutting vehicle emissions to 120 grammes per kilometre by 2012, although it has failed to agree a common line on how to achieve this. Porsche’s average emissions are more than double this target. (…)
Mr Wiedeking’s warning came as Porsche reported a six-fold rise in first-half pre-tax profits swelled by a number of one-off effects related to its large investment in VW. Porsche has spent €4bn ($5bn) buying a 27.4 per cent stake in the bigger German carmaker, and in the six months to the end of January marked up the value of its VW shares by €520m.
It also made a similar amount from share price hedging connected to VW, which, together with sums it made last year, mean it has earned more than €1bn from the policy.
In spite of a 3 per cent fall in revenue to €3bn, Mr Wiedeking said underlying profitability in its core automobile business had risen. Preliminary pre-tax profit rose from €278m to €1.45bn.
Hmm..profits seem to be pretty close to the heart of Mr. Wiedeking, definitely closer than environmental concerns. As to the ecological insensivity of Americans, you will find this chart of interest:
Development of particle limits for Diesel cars in g per km
Also of interest: a comparison of fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions of several Mercedes-Benz models for the U.S. and Germany (source):
Conclusion: the leading German luxury car maker sells cleaner and more fuel efficient models in the U.S. than in Germany! Why-oh-why?
BUT BUSH DIDN’T SIGN KYOTO!!!!
Update: What a coincidence! Benny Peiser from the Liverpool John Moores University headlines his CCNet newsletter: IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID: GERMANY TAKES UP FIGHT AGAINST EU EMISSION PLANS.
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