Volkswagen chief calls for settlement to end Ukraine war to help EU economy

The head of Volkswagen has called on the European Union to pursue a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine for the continent’s economy, in an intervention that challenges the position taken by European leaders.

“I think we should do everything we can to really stop this war and get back to negotiations and get back to trying to open the world again,” Herbert Diess told the Financial Times. Auto Future Summit on Monday.

“I think we shouldn’t give up on open markets and free trade and I think we shouldn’t give up on negotiating and trying to compromise.”

The Volkswagen CEO’s comments come a day after German Chancellor Olaf Schulz pledged to do so Continue to supply Ukraine with weaponsAdding that “surrender to brute force” was not an option for Europe.

While his position has been publicly backed by German industry, disruptions in supply chains – exacerbated by the war in Ukraine – continue to hurt companies like Volkswagen, the world’s second-largest automaker.

A shortage of wire tools made in the country has forced the company to cut production in recent weeks, and Volkswagen has run out of electric models in the United States and Europe for this year.

Dies said that if world trade continued to struggle, “Europe would suffer the most, and Germany would suffer, but I think that would be bad for the whole world.”

His comments come as Germany debates whether to withstand a sudden halt to Russian gas supplies. a New study A government adviser found that the German economy could lose about 12 percent of its annual production if supplies suddenly stopped.

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Dis, the Volkswagen driver, who previously warned that a prolonged war would do More damage to Germany and Europe from the Covid-19 pandemichas sparked criticism for previous comments.

In 2019, he apologized after using the phrase “Ebit macht frei”, or “Profits will set you free” – an apparent manipulation of the phrase “Arbeit macht frei”, or “Labour will set you free”, which was forged at the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Later that year, he said it was “unaware” China’s mass detention of Muslims in Xinjiang Province.

On Monday, Diess also warned that the German group would struggle to overtake Tesla as the world’s largest electric car maker by 2025.

“I did not expect our main competitor in the United States to grow so quickly,” he said.

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