Volkswagen CEO issues ‘final wake-up call’ amid drastic spending freeze
Warning of tough times ahead, CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Thomas Schäfer, addressed top VW employees this week, telling them, “This is the final wake-up call.” Schäfer is calling for a short-term spending freeze to get costs under control.
“We are letting the costs run too high in many years,” VW’s leader proclaimed during an online management meeting this week.
Schäfer said he plans to cut spending for the rest of the year as part of a broader company-wide savings plan. Last month, VW announced a new “Accelerate Forward” program designed to drive long-term profitability and performance.
Part of the plans includes doubling VW passenger brand profit margins from around 3% currently to 6.5%.
The core brands leader said after announcing the initiative, “The program is the number one priority for the entire Board of Management.” Through its Accelerate Forward strategy, VW expects to improve earnings by roughly $11.2B (10 billion euros).
The company will focus on higher volume models to streamline production while reducing the number of variants to further optimize efficiency. VW gave an example of its new ID.7 having 99% fewer configuration options compared to a Golf 7 model.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s problems go beyond just simply profit margins. Despite all-electric vehicle sales increasing 48% YOY to 321,600 in the first half of the year, EV sales fell in one of its most critical markets, China.
Volkswagen CEO: “This is the final wake up call”
According to quotes by Manager Magazin, VW’s Schäfer said at the management meeting this week:
The roof structure is on fire. This is the final wake-up call.
VW’s final wake-up call comes as the automaker’s dominance over the Chinese auto market is slipping. The Volkswagen Group generates around 40% of its revenue from China, yet EV sales are down 1.5% from the first half of 2022.
More importantly, while new EV registrations are still climbing in other key markets, many of these are older orders from last year or even 2021, in some instances.
According to Handelsblatt, the reason for VWs demand problem is its so-called agency model the automaker implemented with dealers while introducing its ID series.
The move essentially helps save on sales costs but limits the dealer’s ability to raise or lower prices. A VW sales rep said, “The manufacturer cannot sell directly, that becomes clear in times like these,” adding the electric models are “simply too expensive.”
The report claims VW’s high order backlog is still masking the low demand. Earlier this year, CEO of VW Group and Porsche, said he had no plans of joining Tesla in a price war.
However, unlike Tesla, Volkswagen is not generating substantial margins on its electric models. Despite this, the automaker has already caved in China by introducing a limited-time offer on its ID.3 electric car.
Looking ahead, Volkswagen will likely look to introduce cheaper, more basic models with smaller batteries, like the ID2 all concept starting under $27,000 (€25,000) with up to 279 miles (450 km) of range.
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Rondo Energy and energy producer EDP are installing a massive 100 MWh renewable-powered heat battery at HEINEKEN’s brewery in Lisbon, Portugal. The project will deliver round-the-clock renewable steam and reduce emissions without altering the facility’s beer brewing process.
Brewing HEINEKEN with zero-carbon steam
The Rondo Heat Battery (RHB) will be the biggest deployed in the beverage industry worldwide. It can store electricity as high-temperature heat using refractory bricks, then convert that heat into 24/7 steam, all without burning fossil fuels.
At HEINEKEN’s Central de Cervejas e Bebidas Brewery and Malting Plant, the heat battery system will supply 7 MW of steam, powered by renewable electricity from onsite solar and the grid. That steam is identical to steam created by gas-fired boilers, but without the carbon pollution.
EDP is providing the renewable electricity and will deliver the steam directly to HEINEKEN via a Heat-as-a-Service model. Rondo is supplying the battery, and HEINEKEN gets to ditch fossil fuels without retooling its brewing process.
Why this matters
This project is a big win for industrial decarbonization. High-temperature steam is one of the most complex parts of manufacturing to electrify, and the beer industry runs on it. HEINEKEN’s Lisbon site already uses solar panels for electricity and electric heat pumps for hot water, and this move helps it go even further.
It’s part of HEINEKEN’s “Brew a Better World” plan to hit net zero emissions by 2040 and decarbonize all of its global production sites by 2030.
Additionally, the deployment aligns with Portugal’s national target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030.
The bigger picture
With the European Investment Bank and Breakthrough Energy Catalyst backing this and other Rondo projects with €75 million in funding, this Lisbon installation is just the beginning. Rondo’s technology enables energy-hungry industries to switch from fossil fuels to renewable electricity without compromising 24/7 operations.
Rondo CEO Eric Trusiewicz sums it up: “We are thrilled to be installing our first Rondo Heat Battery in Iberia, and to support HEINEKEN to reach its goals. We look forward to helping industries across Iberia cut costs and carbon, and help Iberia capitalize on the opportunity.”
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Lucid Group (LCID) reported third-quarter earnings after the market closed on Wednesday, missing top and bottom-line estimates.
With 4,078 vehicles delivered in Q3, Lucid marked its seventh straight quarter with higher deliveries. Through the first nine months of 2025, Lucid delivered nearly 10,500 vehicles, more than the roughly 10,200 it handed over in 2024.
Although supply chain issues hampered production in the first half of the year, Lucid’s CEO Marc Winterhoff said the company made “significant progress ramping production of the Lucid Gravity through Q3,” including adding a second manufacturing shift at its Casa Grande, Arizona, plant.
Lucid produced 3,891 vehicles in Q3, missing estimates of around 5,600. With 9,966 EVs produced through the third quarter, Lucid will need to build over 8,000 more to meet its full-year production goal of 18,000 to 20,000.
According to estimates, Lucid is expected to report an adjusted quarterly loss of $2.27 per share on revenue of $352 million in Q3 2025.
Lucid Group Q3 2025 earnings breakdown
Lucid missed top and bottom-line estimates as it continues to address industry-wide supply chain issues that are hampering production of the Gravity SUV.
Although it missed estimates, Lucid reported Q3 revenue of $336.6 million, which is still up 68% from $200 million in the same period last year.
Lucid’s net loss narrowed to $978.4 million in the third quarter, or $3.31 per share, from $992.5 million, or $4.09 per share, in Q3 2024. On an adjusted basis, Lucid posted a loss of $2.65 per share.
In addition, Lucid said it agreed with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) to increase the delayed draw term loan credit facility (DDTL) from $750 million to around $2 billion.
Given the increase, Lucid said total liquidity would have been around $5.5 billion at the end of Q3, up from the $4.2 billion it reported. Lucid ended the third quarter with $1.6 billion in cash and equivalents.
Lucid said liquidity is enough to fund it through the first half of 2027, up from the second half of 2026, as previously forecast. Lucid plans to launch production of its more affordable midsize platform in late 2026 with vehicles starting at around $50,000.
Lucid confirmed it was still on track to start production of the midsize platform later next year. However, given the supply chain issues, it now expects to hit the lower end of its production goal at around 18,000.
Winterhoff said the company “remains intensely focused on ramping up production and addressing the significant supply chain disruptions impacting the entire industry.”
Lucid is advancing other emerging tech, including autonomy and intelligent mobility. Through a new partnership with NVIDIA, Lucid aims to be among the first to offer Level 4 autonomous driving.
The third-quarter earnings miss comes after Rivian (RIVN) beat expectations this week, reporting higher revenue and improving gross margins.
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Robinhood beat Wall Street expectations for the third quarter on Wednesday, extending a hot streak that has made it one of the biggest large-cap U.S. tech stocks this year.
Here is how Robinhood’s results compared to Wall Street estimates, according to analysts surveyed by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 61cents vs. 53 cents expected
- Revenue: $1.27 billion vs. $1.19 billion expected
Revenue doubled year-over-year, while net income climbed to $556 million, or 61 cents per share, up significantly from the same quarter last year, when the company posted net income of $150 million, or 17 cents per share.
Transaction-based revenue, which is a proxy for trading activity, came in at $730 million, below StreetAccount’s $739 million estimate.
“Q3 was another strong quarter of profitable growth, and we continued to diversify our business, adding two more business lines — Prediction Markets and Bitstamp — that are generating approximately $100 million or more in annualized revenues,” finance chief Jason Warnick said in the release.
Robinhood is closing the gap with Coinbase as it pushes beyond retail trading into full-scale wealth management. The company has been aggressively offering deposit matches to lure clients from Fidelity and Schwab, and assets under management have grown with its TradePMR acquisition.
Robinhood year-to-date stock chart.
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