Despite low capacity utilisation at Volkswagen’s Zwickau electric car factory, production of the Audi Q4 e-tron and the VW ID.3 is to be expanded to other locations. As reported yesterday, Volkswagen is cutting hundreds of jobs in Zwickau due to the “current market situation”.
The decisions announced last year remain valid: the production of the Audi Q4 e-tron and the VW ID.3 will each be distributed to another location: “We will also produce the Q4 e-tron in Brussels from the end of 2023 – in addition to the production in Zwickau,” an Audi spokesperson told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The ID.3 is also scheduled to roll off the production line in Wolfsburg from autumn – but initially only in small numbers. The parts for the final assembly will initially be supplied from Saxony, and full production in Wolfsburg is planned for next year.
Doubts about this strategy recently arose because the electric car plant in Zwickau is not working to capacity. The ID.4, its coupé offshoot ID.5, the compact ID.3, the Cupra Born and the Audi Q4 e-tron are built there as SUVs and as Sportbacks. Originally, all six models were produced exclusively there before the expansion of production took hold (for example, the ID.4’s production started in Chattanooga in mid-2022). Volkswagen made it public yesterday that it would cut hundreds of jobs in Zwickau due to the “current market situation”. According to Automobilwoche, the Volkswagen group will also permanently cut shifts.
This had already been foreshadowed: The German publication Manager Magazin reported in mid-July that the recent noticeable decline in demand for electric cars was particularly explosive for Volkswagen. But apparently not so serious that the plant allocation plans drawn up last year would have to be changed. In December 2022, Audi confirmed that the Q4 e-tron would be built in Brussels from the second half of 2023. At the time, it was still open whether production of the compact SUV would be transferred to Brussels entirely or distributed between the two sites. Now it is clear: the latter will be the case.
The announcement about the planned production of the ID.3 in Wolfsburg also dates back to December 2022, when it was said that the compact electric car would roll off the production line there from 2023 – initially in partial production with parts from Zwickau, then in full production from 2024. As the Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports, this plan will be followed through from autumn – “but initially only in small numbers”.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s decision not to build a new electric car plant in Wolfsburg has apparently been finalised. As Business Insider has learned from executives, Group CEO Oliver Blume informed them on Wednesday about the change of plans. A corresponding resolution of the supervisory board under the leadership of Hans Dieter Pötsch is still pending, but is considered a mere formality, according to the report. In February, CFO Arno Antlitz had already declared that the new plant in the Warmenau district of Wolfsburg, which was once envisaged for the planned e-flagship Trinity, would be discarded.
sueddeutsche.de, businessinsider.de (both in German)
