Transportation
VW, Volvo Warn Iran Conflict Compounds ‘Anxiety’ for Car Buyers
Customers with a salesperson on the forecourt of a Volkswagen AG showroom in Berlin.
Photographer: Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/BloombergVolkswagen AG and Volvo Car AB warned that the Middle East conflict threatens demand at a time when automakers are struggling to recover from uneven electric-vehicle sales, tariffs and a slump in China.
“We see already in many markets customer sentiment going down,” Martin Sander, who oversees passenger-car sales at the VW brand, said Thursday at an industry event in London. “We’ve had a lot of uncertainty among consumers already and this is now, of course, adding another layer of anxiety.”