Financial Services Volkswagen -

"They aren't just financing the car; they are financing the lifecycle," says Maria Tischendorf, an auto analyst at Berlin-based Sternberg & Co. "Because they understand the engineering, they can underwrite risk that a standard bank would reject. That is a moat." While the "new car" market sputters, VWFS has pivoted hard into mobility subscriptions . Gone are the days when your only choices were "buy" or "long-term lease." VWFS now offers monthly rolling subscriptions for Volkswagen, Cupra, and Škoda vehicles.

Volkswagen used to be an engineering company that happened to offer loans. Now, it is a financial services company that happens to build very good cars. And that is a revolution you won’t see on a test drive.

Here, VWFS plays the long game. Instead of dumping millions of used EVs into an auction house for a fire sale (which would destroy the brand's new car pricing), VWFS is warehousing these vehicles and deploying them as .