VW Buys More Parts Outside Germany

Volkswagen AG says rising domestic energy prices have prompted the company to purchase more of its components from suppliers based outside Germany, Bild am Sonntag reports.

VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech tells the Hamburg-based newspaper that Germany risks eventually losing some industrial sectors, such as foundries and metalworking. Energy costs also threaten the competitiveness of the country's automakers, he opines.

Piech predicts the U.S., which is developing cheaper domestic sources of energy such as natural gas, will have an energy-cost advantage to Europe until at least 2020. Germany and many of its neighbors pay steep prices for energy from Norway and Russia.

Piech adds that Germany's plans to phase out nuclear power by 2020 could add pressure by driving up electricity prices.