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The Volkswagen Group’s main plant in Wolfsburg, Germany could face historically low production this year and needs a faster transition to electric vehicles to remain competitive, according to senior labor officials at the automaker.
Production of a flagship electric sedan – dubbed Trinity – is set to start in Wolfsburg in 2026, which is too late to ensure sufficient use of the site, said VW works council chief Daniela Cavallo and her deputy Gerardo. Scarpino in a joint statement on Saturday.
“The location needs a faster way towards electric mobility,†Cavallo said.
The Braunschweiger Zeitung The newspaper quoted Cavallo as saying the Trinity project is expected to be pushed back to 2024, according to Reuters.
The global chip shortage is hampering manufacturing at the sprawling Wolfsburg factory, which has produced around 780,000 cars per year on average over the past 10 years and covers an area as large as Monaco.
VW announced this week that it will reduce working hours there during the first two weeks of October. A single assembly line will operate at the plant, which builds the Golf, Touran, Tiguan and Seat Tarraco models.
VW CEO Herbert Diess has pitted Wolfsburg against the Tesla plant which is under construction outside Berlin and is expected to start production next year. VW plans to upgrade Wolfsburg with the latest technology and software operations for electric vehicles.
Due to the continued scarcity of semiconductor chips, production in Wolfsburg this year could even fall below the 2020 level, when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed production to just under 500,000 cars, according to the VW works council. VW’s initial goal, agreed in a labor pact five years ago, was to manufacture at least 820,000 vehicles in Wolfsburg last year.
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