Power Players: How did VW go off track?
Business Daily

Power Players: How did VW go off track?

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 14, 202625 min
  • Conversation
  • Business & money

Competition from China, weaker sales and a slower-than-expected shift to electric vehicles have left Volkswagen facing its biggest challenge in decades. VW says up to 100,000 jobs could go, with some of its biggest German plants facing closure. Rahul Tandon, Michelle Fleury and Will Bain look at whether VW can turn things around, and whether its troubles reflect wider problems in Germany's economy. Producer: Matt Lines You can email the team: [email protected] (Picture: Volkswagen's main German plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, September 17, 2026. Credit: REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen)

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B2 · Upper-intermediate

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A1 36%A2 33%B1 19%B2 12%C1 1%
  • 87% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 199 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 117 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Here we go then, do you two remember this? Disney Productions the love bug he's a scrappy little people that adopts a has been race driver and turns him into a champion oh so much nostalgia there is

1:11

this a flex if I say I only remember the reboot I never like her be I'm gonna be honest with you I mean it you know happy car what a load of nonsense I don't know Oh, it's such a Grinch, I loved it. The lovable VW Beetle that conquered Hollywood. For decades, it was more than a car company. It was a symbol of German engineering, a pillar of Europe's

1:36

industrial success. Now it faces a much less charming ride. Sales are under pressure, Chinese rivals, well, they're gaining ground and the company is confronting some difficult questions about its future. So today on Power Players from Business Daily, we're asking what went wrong at Volkswagen and is this just a crisis at one carmaker or a warning

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