Volkswagen to stop EV production in Dresden

Volkswagen reportedly wants to stop vehicle production in Dresden after more than 20 years. The site is to be retained, and the 300 or so employees will be given other tasks, among others, in the area of innovative production and testing.

VW is building the ID.3 in the so-called ‘Gläserne Manufaktur’ or Transparent Factory. According to the German publication Automobilwoche, concerning company circles, vehicle production in the factory is to be discontinued altogether.

However, the article does not specify a time horizon. More than 150 000 units of the VW Phaeton, Bentley Flying Spur, VW e-Golf, and ID.3 models have been built in Dresden since the plant started operation in spring 2002. Last year, 6 500 ID.3 models rolled off the production line there.

Reorganizing

VW is currently making improvements in vehicle production and reorganizing it. The electric car plant in Zwickau is not working to capacity and will probably not be in the near future. Volkswagen, therefore, announced last week 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 and integrate Zwickau into the group’s production organization. Currently, it belongs to the independent “Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH”.

The ID.4, its coupé offshoot the ID.5, the compact ID.3, the Cupra Born, and the Audi Q4 e-tron SUV and Sportback are built in Zwickau. Initially, all six models were produced exclusively there before the expansion of production took hold.

The news agency DPA reported at the end of last week that despite the lack of capacity utilization in Zwickau, VW and Audi are sticking to their 2022 expansion plans, according to which the Audi Q4 e-tron will also be produced in Brussels from the end of 2023 and the ID.3 will also be made in Wolfsburg from autumn.

Struggling with EV demand

In mid-July, the German Manager Magazin reported that the recent noticeable decline in demand for electric cars was particularly explosive for Volkswagen. “We have had a strong reluctance to buy electric cars since January, regardless of the brand,” a Volkswagen Group dealer told Wirtschaftsblatt.

&In July, it was also said that if the situation did not improve quickly, production in Zwickau would be switched from three-shift to two-shift operation.

At the end of June, it was also reported that VW was temporarily reducing the production of electric cars at its plant in Emden. According to an article in the Handelsblatt in July, Volkswagen is struggling with demand problems for its electric models in Germany and Europe as a whole.