A bit of Volkswagen’s Emden plant within the northwest of Germany will stay closed for six weeks, in keeping with a brand new report. Manufacturing unit staff on the electrical automobile traces will get an prolonged one-month summer time break, and one shift will likely be canceled for 2 weeks.
The data was supplied by Manfred Wulff, Emden plant’s head of the works council, to the German Press Company and Nordwest Zeitung (North West newspaper).
Affected fashions embrace the ID.4 electrical SUV and the upcoming ID.7 electrical sedan. We reviewed the ID.7 in April this 12 months. Manufacturing of combustion-engined fashions, together with the Passat, will stay unaffected.
Wulff additionally introduced a discount within the variety of plant staff. 300 of the 1500 momentary staff won’t have their contracts renewed in August 2023. The workforce discount and prolonged holidays level to 1 conclusion: it’s a gross sales disaster.
Demand for EVs is down by 30 %, in comparison with authentic manufacturing figures. Furthermore, potential EV consumers are exhibiting indicators of reluctance, Wulff advised Nordwest Zeitung. Manufacturing of the ID.7, initially slated for July 2023, has been pushed again to later this 12 months.
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Olaf Lies, the minister of financial affairs for the state of Decrease Saxony, advised the newspaper that Volkswagen’s selections in Emden have been “comprehensible.” To counter the gross sales droop, he known as for a discount in value-added tax (VAT) and extra EV incentives.
Volkswagen Group gross sales have been up by 68 % in Europe in Q1 2023 12 months over 12 months, whereas US gross sales elevated by a exceptional 98 %. Nonetheless, China gross sales have been down by a worrying 25 %, as it’s VW Group’s largest market, and in addition the largest plug-in automobile market by quantity on this planet.
Volkswagen introduced final 12 months that it had deliberate to speculate practically $1.1 billion in changing and retooling the Emden plant for MEB platform-based electrical automobiles. It employs 8,000 staff on the facility.
The model makes electrical automobiles at a number of websites throughout the globe, 4 of that are in Germany: Emden, Hanover, Dresden, and Zwickau. Its worldwide EV vegetation, the place primarily the favored ID.4 is made, are positioned within the cities of Anting and Foshan in China, and Chattanooga, Tennessee within the US.