A piece of Volkswagen’s Emden plant within the northwest of Germany will stay closed for six weeks, based on a brand new report. Manufacturing facility staff on the electrical car traces will get an prolonged one-month summer season break, and one shift will likely be canceled for 2 weeks.

The knowledge was offered 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 short-term staff is not going to have their contracts renewed in August 2023. The workforce discount and prolonged holidays level to at least one conclusion: it’s a gross sales disaster.

Demand for EVs is down by 30 p.c, in comparison with unique manufacturing figures. Furthermore, potential EV patrons are displaying indicators of reluctance, Wulff informed Nordwest Zeitung. Manufacturing of the ID.7, initially slated for July 2023, has been pushed again to later this 12 months.

5 Photographs

Olaf Lies, the minister of financial affairs for the state of Decrease Saxony, informed the newspaper that Volkswagen’s selections in Emden had been “comprehensible.” To counter the gross sales hunch, he referred to as for a discount in value-added tax (VAT) and extra EV incentives.

Volkswagen Group gross sales had been up by 68 p.c in Europe in Q1 2023 12 months over 12 months, whereas US gross sales elevated by a exceptional 98 p.c. Nevertheless, China gross sales had been down by a worrying 25 p.c, as it’s VW Group’s largest market, and in addition the largest plug-in automotive market by quantity on the earth.

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.