Range anxiety is worry that your electric car won’t have enough battery to finish your trip. If people feel the battery is too small, they’re less likely to buy an EV.
A regional product strategy is how a car company decides what models to build and sell in each part of the world. The idea here is that Volkswagen’s plan could change that plan for Europe versus China.
A scalable platform is a shared car “foundation” that can be adapted for different models. It helps companies build new cars faster and cheaper by reusing the same core design.
Company
X-Pung
X-Pung is mentioned as a partner company in China. The discussion is about Volkswagen potentially building vehicles in Germany that are tied to that partnership.
A wire harness is the car’s organized bundle of wires that connects all the electronics. Standardizing it means using the same wiring setup across more cars, which can speed up production and cut costs.
A federal tax credit is a government discount on your taxes if you buy something that qualifies, like certain EVs. If that credit goes away, EV prices effectively rise for many buyers, which can hurt sales.
The Infiniti QX80 is a large luxury SUV made for people who want a comfortable ride and lots of space. The podcast mentions a higher-performance “Red Sport” style, which is basically a more performance-focused version of the same SUV. It’s being discussed because Infiniti has been changing or delaying parts of that performance plan.
“Red Sport” is Infiniti’s label for a sportier, more performance-focused version of a model. The segment says Infiniti pushed that version back because the original plan wasn’t competitive enough.
The BMW M Coupe (E36) is a sporty two-door car made by BMW’s performance team. It’s known for being a more driver-focused version of a smaller BMW platform. The podcast mentions upgrades, which is why this model is relevant—owners and builders often modify it to improve performance.
AMG is Mercedes’ performance brand. When the host compares to Mercedes AMG, they mean the kind of sporty, high-performance driving that AMG is known for.
The Infiniti QX80 Red Sport is a sportier version of Infiniti’s big SUV. Here, they’re saying Infiniti changed plans so they could bring out a faster, stronger version sooner instead of waiting for a much bigger “halo” performance SUV.
A halo vehicle is the brand’s “showpiece” car—something meant to make people notice the brand and its technology. It’s often more about image and excitement than selling huge numbers.
Term
ultra-performance
“Ultra-performance” is just a fancy way of saying the very top level of fast, performance-focused cars. In this context, Infiniti is trying to compete with the best-known performance models from other luxury brands.
Horsepower is a way of describing how much power the engine can produce. More horsepower usually means the car can accelerate harder, and here the host says the power number stays about the same while other parts get improved.
Driving dynamics means how the car feels and behaves when you’re driving. It includes how steady it feels in corners and how it responds when you steer, accelerate, or brake.
An active exhaust system is an exhaust setup that can change the sound. It uses valves to let more or less exhaust through, so the car can sound louder or calmer depending on how you drive.
Brake calipers are the parts that squeeze the brake pads against the rotors to stop the car. Bigger calipers can help the brakes work harder and stay consistent when the car is driven more aggressively.
Nismo is Nissan’s in-house performance team/brand. When a car is “developed by Nismo,” it usually means the performance parts and tuning are being handled with a more track-oriented mindset.
A halo performance model is the “showpiece” car a brand uses to prove it can build something exciting and advanced. It may not be the best-selling car, but it helps the brand’s image and credibility.
Volkswagen Group is the big company that runs Volkswagen’s business worldwide. In this segment, they’re talking about changes like reducing jobs, closing factories, and simplifying the lineup to make the company profitable again.
Product complexity refers to how many different models, variants, and configurations a manufacturer offers and has to engineer, build, and support. Cutting product complexity is often used to reduce costs and speed up decision-making.
LIVE
Welcome to Daily Drive for Tuesday, June 14th, 2026.
I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas today on the show.
Volkswagen weighs building China-developed models at underused German plants to preserve
jobs.
Toyota's Koji Sato wants Japan's seven automakers to standardize commodity components to free
resources for new technologies.
And a new consumer survey by consulting firm McKinsey said that range anxiety is rapidly
fading as a barrier to U.S. EV adoption with the introduction of bigger batteries.
Plus, automotive news Europe's Peter Siegel offers insight into Volkswagen's tough decisions.
Straight job cuts and straight factory closures were always going to be a tough sale.
Maybe the necessary medicine that Volkswagen used to swallow, but I think the feeling is
that if there are any other avenues to explore, and this is not from management's perspective,
but from some of the other stakeholders, we should try everything else before we resort
because as you know, once you close an automotive factory, it's not opening again.
Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.
In order to preserve jobs, Volkswagen is considering building China-developed models at underused
German factories.
CEO Oliver Bloom first publicly raised the idea during VW's first quarter earnings call
on April 30th, and it has gained momentum.
It would be a strategic reversal that upends Volkswagen's regional product strategy.
Three broad scenarios are under discussion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The internally preferred option is to build future vehicles based on Volkswagen's China's
scalable platform.
Other options involve producing VW models originally developed for China and VW potentially
manufacturing vehicles for Chinese partner X-Pung in Germany.
Toyota's Koji Sato believes that Japan's seven automotive companies should cooperate
on standardizing commodity components, from steel grades and plastics to wire harnesses
and more.
He says it will save time and money to channel into new technologies, advanced factories,
and better productivity.
In particular, Sato estimated standardizing wire harnesses alone could boost productivity
tenfold.
This plan is one of the most ambitious attempts yet to reshape a sprawling supply base spanning
Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, and Suzuki.
It could potentially feed the car makers worldwide if expanded to cover swaps of components
made by suppliers at home and abroad.
A new consumer survey by consulting firm McKinsey said that range anxiety is becoming less of
a barrier for U.S. EV adoption due to the introduction of bigger batteries that improve
driving distance.
Most new EVs have a range of 300 miles and McKinsey said that battery capacity for electric
vehicles sold in the U.S. increased by more than 50% compared with 2019.
EV sales are recovering from a sharp drop following last year's repeal of the federal
tax credit.
Affordability remains a top concern for all vehicles, so McKinsey analysts don't think
there will be a radical adoption of EVs.
And those are today's headlines.
You can find more details on all those stories at AutoNews.com.
Infinity is hitting the reset button on its first high-performance QX80.
The luxury brand has delayed the red sport by more than a year after deciding the original
plan didn't go far enough to compete with rivals like Mercedes AMG and BMW M.
Now Infinity is expanding the project with upgraded suspension, stronger brakes, and
more aggressive styling.
Not just more horsepower.
Automotive news reporter Irvash Khakharia joins us now to explain why Infinity is raising
the bar, what it means for the brand's performance ambitions, and when buyers can expect the
revamped flagship SUV.
Irvash, welcome back to Daily Drive.
Hi, Kel.
Good to be back.
So, Irvash, Infinity originally planned to focus on horsepower, but now it's reworking
the QX80 red sport into a more complete performance SUV.
What prompted that change in strategy, and what does it say about how competitive this
segment has become?
You know, Infinity had this grand ambition of sort of stepping into the rarefied ultra-performance
space competing with Mercedes AMG, BMW, AM, and the Cadillac V-Series.
And long term, they want to sort of develop a halo vehicle with, you know, close to 700
horsepower, you know, highly tuned vehicle.
But that was the original plan.
Then last year, they decided that that was going to take, you know, some time and they
wanted to come to market quicker.
So they came up with the QX80 red sport.
It was a slightly higher horsepower, about a 20% increase in horsepower, and it was supposed
to have some minor aesthetic changes.
The car was supposed to arrive in dealerships in December.
However, Infinity has sort of looked at the plan and they've realized that, you know,
to be really competitive in this space, they're going to have to need something bigger than
or deeper than a high horsepower car, which was the QX80 red sport.
So they've kind of gone back to the drawing board.
The horsepower will not change.
It'll still be around 600 horsepower.
However, there'll be significant suspension upgrades.
They'll change the driving dynamics, the braking.
It's expected to have a active exhaust system, you know, which can be controlled to make
it louder or quieter.
It's also going to, you know, have larger brake calipers.
So all this is going to take some time to re-engineer this.
This car is being developed by Nismo.
So Infinity is now, they haven't said exactly when it's expected to arrive, but I'm told
that it will come in the first half of 2028 and it will be timed with the refresh of the
QX80.
Now, how important is the success of the QX80 red sport to Infinity's broader efforts
to strengthen its luxury brand?
Yeah.
So, I mean, the QX80 is important because it is sort of the first effort at this performance
brand.
But more broadly speaking, you know, Infinity is seeing what their competitor Genesis is
doing in this space with their high performance venture.
And they've realized that, you know, they've got to, they've got to go more upmarket, they've
got to attract, you know, higher net worth individuals.
And one way of doing that is showing their technology.
And the easiest way to show that technology or sort of the most impactful way to show
their technology chops is through a halo high performance vehicle.
Coming back to the reason why Infinity is also taking another look at the QX80 red sport
is because they've realized that just a horsepower upgrade is not going to be able to justify,
is not going to be enough to justify, you know, the six figure sticker price that they
plan to charge for the QX80 red sport.
I understand that this vehicle will now, this model will could be, could start anywhere
between $130,000 and could go up to $140, $145,000.
So that's a big chunk of change.
And you know, Infinity has to deliver sufficient value if it hopes for this to be a sort of,
you know, somewhat of a commercial success.
Again, it's not going to be a high volume vehicle.
They're anticipating anywhere between 600 to 900 units of sales a year.
Irvash, thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks for having me.
Volkswagen Group is negotiating the best way to restore profitability and what job cuts
and factory closures are necessary.
It currently plans to slash product complexity by as much as 75% and cut its global model
lineup around 50% by 2030.
Peter Siegel is a reporter from our sibling publication, Automotive News Europe.
He sat down with our own Jake Neer.
Here's that conversation.
Peter Siegel, welcome back to Daily Drive.
Thanks, Jake.
Great to be here.
Okay.
So, VW's supervisory board voted down management's restructuring proposal 12 to 7.
How unusual is that and what does it actually mean for the plan going forward?
It's pretty unusual.
They're not unheard of.
The supervisory board has competing factions.
They have, obviously, the company's executive management, the major shareholders such as
the Portion Piech family, and then you have a labor representative.
So there are times when those interests do not align neatly and this was clearly one
of them.
So, Oliver Bluma is reportedly pushing to close four German plants and cut up to 100,000
jobs.
We've been talking about that for a little while here on the show.
That's roughly double what's been on the table.
What's driving that gap between what management wants and what the board will actually accept?
Well, I mean, partially when you say what the board will accept, we're talking about
major job cuts in Germany, potentially the closing of factories.
The state of lower Saxony, Germany, is a major Volkswagen shareholder.
So, straight job cuts and straight factory closures, we're always going to be a tough
sale.
It may be the necessary medicine that Volkswagen needs to swallow, but I think the feeling
is that if there are any other avenues to explore, and this is not from management's
perspective, but from some of the other stakeholders, we should try everything else before we resort
because, as you know, once you close an automotive factory, it's not opening again, so those
jobs will be gone.
They could go elsewhere or they'll just be gone.
And one of the other points of contention here is the level of specifics that are in
the plan.
I mean, we have analysts from Bloomberg Intelligence and Bernstein both saying that this is a pretty
nebulous plan.
That's sort of a paraphrase of what they say, but why announce something this consequential
without firmer details in the plan?
Right.
Well, I think that management had hoped that they would be able to announce something
more concrete.
The board met yesterday evening into last night.
They came up with what they call a future plan, which is not the most exciting title,
but really it's only a three-page press release.
Oliver Bloom of the CEO came on, did a video announcing what he'd like to do, which is
basically trim the number of models by half.
Apparently, Volkswagen Group has about 150 models over its various brands and also reduced
diversity, which is basically the number of options within a model.
And then some other things like streamlined technology and sort of group all the Eastern
technology and the Western technology and things like that.
But there were no specifics and except that they would start calling the models as soon
as possible.
But other than that, there were no specifics.
And it's really not enough for analysts to kind of wrap their head around and make a
recommendation as to hold the stock, buy the stock, sell the stock.
So they were disappointed, they expected more because there's been a buildup to this.
There's been leaks, the usual sort of anticipation before a major meeting involving Europe's
biggest automaker and the second largest in the world after Toyota.
There does seem to be this theme of this tension building here when it related to time.
I mean, you already mentioned they had to get something out, even if they didn't have
all the details, you know, analysts are sort of trying to figure out what to do with any
of this, the management does feel some pressure to act.
And I'm curious, you know, USB's Patrick Hummel, who you spoke with said that VW's
chance of getting ahead of Chinese competitions, the Chinese competition wave is very slim.
Do you agree?
How much time does VW realistically have and is that what's causing some of that tension
here?
Yeah.
I mean, you can look at it and say they have no time because it looks like in gross businesses
essentially broken up into two parts, the business they do in China, which they're probably
the largest profit pool, the largest individual country market, of course.
And they have brands like Porsche, you know, and Audi that sell higher end models there.
And then of course, there's their European business and then the rest of the world.
But for the sake of argument, let's exclude the rest of the world and just talk about
Europe and China.
Their sales in China were down, I believe, 28% in the second quarter.
At the same time in Europe, their sales held up.
But what's happening in Europe is that the Chinese are coming in as a cut through at
price war in China.
And Chinese companies are desperate to find profits and looking to Europe and they're
coming into the European market and they're undercutting the legacy automakers' prices.
And we have the same features and all that sort of thinking, more car for less money,
all the stuff that consumers who aren't as obsessive about this as we are, they see a
bigger car with modern features and less money and they'll buy it.
And Chinese automakers now have a 10% share of the European market.
That's up from, you know, four or five percent a year ago.
And the trend is not showing any signs of slowing down.
At the same time, the European market is down by about 2.5 million units pre-COVID.
So Volkswagen's slice of the pie is not going to get bigger.
It's only got one way to go.
It will probably take them 10 years to close.
If they need to close factories, it will take them 10 years.
Ten years from now, Chinese automakers will have factories running in Europe to avoid tariffs.
And they'll probably have a larger share of the European market.
Now, tell me a little bit about E.G.
Mattal and the Works Council's sort of, you know, role in all of this.
I know workers were out in force on July 9th.
There have been demonstrations across sites.
How much leverage does the union actually have here?
They have a lot in Germany, probably more than any other industrialized country,
because of the process known as co-determination, where basically large strategic decisions
can't be made in big companies without buy-in from union representatives who sit on the board of directors.
So, you know, you don't really have that.
I believe that was one of the issues in Volkswagen, U.S. unionizing there.
Were they going to have a seat on the board in Chattanooga?
Would they be able to participate in decisions the way they can in Germany?
So, yes, E.G. Mattal and some of the other big unions have incredible leverage.
I mean, they have to be, their buy-in is essential for any strategic decision.
All right. And finally, Peter, I have to wonder also, at what point does this stop
being a restructuring story for just VW and become something more serious for the broader
European auto industry?
Yeah. I mean, I think it's actually almost at that point right now, especially with looking at Germany.
You can just sort of discount some of the other European brands that are more,
you know, that aren't less global. But, you know, Volkswagen Group, BMW and Mercedes,
you know, they're facing the same pressures, the pressure within China,
where a lot of them hitched their wagons to a decade and a half ago.
And then the pressures within Europe, they're also facing tariffs from the United States,
which has been an incredibly lucrative market for them.
So, they're all sort of facing the same kind of challenges.
BMW came out with a fairly surprising profit warning a couple of weeks ago.
Mercedes' profits are down.
They're basically going to have to figure out a way to go forward as smaller companies.
And just to promote some of our work, my colleague William Boston has written a really
nice analysis piece on how the Volkswagen decision fits into the challenges facing the
German auto sector. So, keep an eye out for that, please.
Peter Siegel, really appreciate you joining us from across the pond.
Thank you so much for all your insights today on Volkswagen and the European market.
Thanks, Jake. Appreciate it.
That's daily drive for today. Thanks to our own Hans Grimel, Lawrence Eilif,
and Peter Siegel for their reporting for today's podcast.
You can get the latest news on Volkswagen, Toyota, and everything happening in the auto industry
at AutoNews.com. Come back tomorrow for a conversation with Eric Ladoo,
vice president of Infinities America.
We have seen, as a matter of fact, even the first full month of sales, which is the month of June,
exceeded our own internal expectations.
We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the show and the topics we covered today.
Send us an email at dailydrive at autonews.com or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774.
And if you enjoy the podcast, remember to like, leave a review, and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
About this episode
Range anxiety is fading for U.S. EV buyers as battery sizes grow, with McKinsey pointing to bigger batteries and more than 50% higher U.S. EV battery capacity since 2019. The show then pivots to Volkswagen’s difficult restructuring: a supervisory board vote (12 to 7) rejects management’s plan amid pressure from Chinese competition and co-determination politics. Infiniti’s QX80 Red Sport also gets a reset—Nismo-led updates, active exhaust, and a timing push for 2028.
