The automaker senses that people are spending less: orders for new cars are falling. Nevertheless, CEO Markus Duesmann thinks saving is the right thing to do – and advocates empty streets.
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Max Haegler
Markus Duesmann is someone who is not easily knocked out by anything. He contested the dangerous desert rally in Morocco on a motorcycle, at least until he crashed badly. After a very long illness with Covid, he fought for his health and played quite calmly in the Volkswagen Group’s recent power struggle – at least to the outside world. You take it from the Audi CEO when he says: “I don’t tend to worry.” The sentence that he immediately adds in this conversation with the is all the more relevant Süddeutsche Zeitung: “But the current situation is keeping me busy.” Because at Audi they see “the first signs” that incoming orders in Europe are declining. Officially, BMW and Mercedes see things differently, but who knows for how long. The decline in Ingolstadt is likely to be an indicator of a major turnaround in the overall economy, which is increasingly being impacted by the war in Ukraine.