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Volkswagen is to pause production at two of its plants in Germany because of weak demand for fully electric cars.
The carmaker will suspend work for one week in mid-October in Dresden as well as at its EV plant in Zwickau, which produces six EV models for VW, Audi and Cupra.
It also plans to shorten the working week by a day at a third plant in Osnabrück in Lower Saxony.
The decision by a company emblematic of Germany’s position as the engine of the EU’s economy, will be seen as a dent in the union’s hopes of switching the continent to electric vehicles in the next 10 years.
Closure days are also being considered at a fourth plant in Emden, which makes the ID.4 and ID.7.
Zwickau in Lower Saxony has been converted to electric car production with the last combustion engine rolling off the assembly line in 2020. The switch ended 116 years of history that included production of the Trabant car before German reunification.
Stellantis, which owns Fiat and Peugeot, has announced a pause in production at several European factories for similar reasons to VW.
A VW spokesperson said: “Volkswagen is adjusting the production programme at its plants to match current customer demand for the models built there. In some plants, this will lead to shift cancellations in the coming weeks, while in others it will result in additional shifts.”
Weekend shifts will be added at VW’s Wolfsburg plant, which is considered the home of the company and its combustion engine cars.
Sales of EVs slowed last month while demand for hybrid battery models soared, underlining continuing consumer fears over range and the availability of charging points.
Data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association shows that, while EV take-up in Norway is high, adoption elsewhere in Europe is slow. In southern Europe, where there is little EV charging infrastructure, demand is particularly weak.
Overall, just 16% of new car sales are EVs, according to the association’s data. The figure for hybrids is 37%.
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Halting production of the panda, and Alfa as well. I liked the tonale but expensive on MB, I liked the junior too, but small, everything needs a pack at extra cost.
What price that hideous, woke jaGuar never makes production. As posted at its reveal, feel sorry for their dedicated work force. Not so much for VW – I’ve had 11 over the years- who have lost their way under the marxist eu regulators.
A few weeks ago the SMMT boasted about August EV sales reaching arbitrary Target. It is now coming to light that very large numbers were pre reg and are now appearing in Autotrader, undercutting existing second hand prices. A doom loop, but our Rachel is good at those. Good luck all
Yet further evidence of what was discussed this morning on a different thread. No doubt someone will be along soon to say that it’s all made up 🙄
Don’t worry – shortly you will be forced to have a digital ID and if you will refuse to drive BEV they will cut your benefits.
And no, this is not conspiracy – I have seen how UAE Pass works in UAE.
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Apologies for briefness and spelling mistakes.Motability Skoda Enyaq SportLine 85x April 2024 (unhappy customer - Ombudsman pending)
Motability Mazda CX-60 PHEV July 2023 (unhappy customer - early termination on mechanical grounds)
Motability VW Touran Family Pack May 2019 (happy customer)Don’t worry – shortly you will be forced to have a digital ID and if you will refuse to drive BEV they will cut your benefits. And no, this is not conspiracy – I have seen how UAE Pass works in UAE.
Motability will see to that 🤣🤣
There is a petition doing the rounds at the moment, which is expected to have the largest number of signatures of any previous. Yesterday, it had 1.7m signaturers, so I added 2 more lol.
I don’t understand why people object to ID cards. I’d have no issue whatsoever having one (although the current proposal seems to be that they would only be required to work, and I’m retired). It’s the same with CCTV that some people complain about. If I’m ever the victim of crime I’d be very pleased to be able to support a prosecution with CCTV evidence. If you’ve got nothing to hide and you’re not doing anything dodgy then I can’t see why people would object to any of these things, especially if they prevent fraud and other illegal activities that ultimately us law abiding citizens pay for!
I don’t understand why people object to ID cards. I’d have no issue whatsoever having one (although the current proposal seems to be that they would only be required to work, and I’m retired). It’s the same with CCTV that some people complain about. If I’m ever the victim of crime I’d be very pleased to be able to support a prosecution with CCTV evidence. If you’ve got nothing to hide and you’re not doing anything dodgy then I can’t see why people would object to any of these things, especially if they prevent fraud and other illegal activities that ultimately us law abiding citizens pay for!
Can you help me understand how CCTV is relevant to Digital ID, please?
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Apologies for briefness and spelling mistakes.Motability Skoda Enyaq SportLine 85x April 2024 (unhappy customer - Ombudsman pending)
Motability Mazda CX-60 PHEV July 2023 (unhappy customer - early termination on mechanical grounds)
Motability VW Touran Family Pack May 2019 (happy customer)@kdwolf because it’s also often cited by people who claim that these things are an infringement of civil liberties (Big Brother etc).
I don’t understand why people object to ID cards. I’d have no issue whatsoever having one (although the current proposal seems to be that they would only be required to work, and I’m retired). It’s the same with CCTV that some people complain about. If I’m ever the victim of crime I’d be very pleased to be able to support a prosecution with CCTV evidence. If you’ve got nothing to hide and you’re not doing anything dodgy then I can’t see why people would object to any of these things, especially if they prevent fraud and other illegal activities that ultimately us law abiding citizens pay for!
When you get offered a job by a reputable employer, your national insurance number gives every detail a reputable employer needs to assess your legal to work. On the other side of the spectrum, you have employers who far from reputable and prepered to offer a lower cash in hand rate, regardless of whether your working on the side or from Timbuctu – ID cards will not change this, regardless of what Starmer (Blair) thinks.
The goverment/s handling of data securely has always been woefully inadequate in all area’s. Personally I don’t want all my data lost or leaked, to god knows who by some clumsy or corupt government employee.
@kdwolf because it’s also often cited by people who claim that these things are an infringement of civil liberties (Big Brother etc).
I see where you’re coming from. In the UK the force uses DEMS (Digital Evidence Management System) and the businesses may voluntarily register their cameras with the police and many do – the likes of Tesco, Asda etc.
When a crime occurs, the force raises a Business Request to the businesses in a specific area, asking to provide evidence items within a specific timeframe, let’s say 20 minutes frame. The businesses may respond, but are not obliged.
The police can also raise a Citizen Request via a dedicated Shared Portal for the members of the public to upload evidence they may have in relation to a specific crime.
None of the above forces anyone involved to provide any evidence – it is all voluntarily.
Yet in case of the digital ID it changes things placing a witness into a very scary position: the force will know you were on the scene at the exact time, and they will interview you. Now the question do you want to be interviewed? There are plenty of cases when a witness had to flee their home. Do you want to be one of these?
And this is in addition to all the usual things:
– It will be private company, holding information about you like Serpico Group, who also rents houses and does very many other things they will be keen on having your data.
– The information can be leaked – there is no 100% secured systems. And the latest string of Jaguar / Heathrow / etc. just shows you what happens when you outsource development to off-shore companies
– The system simply may not work. And as with COVID passports in Europe you couldn’t even purchase food, because the scanner kept showing your passport wasn’t registered.There are so many other concerns, but this is not the right forum to raise them.
Sent from a mobile device.
Apologies for briefness and spelling mistakes.Motability Skoda Enyaq SportLine 85x April 2024 (unhappy customer - Ombudsman pending)
Motability Mazda CX-60 PHEV July 2023 (unhappy customer - early termination on mechanical grounds)
Motability VW Touran Family Pack May 2019 (happy customer)Whilst I personally don’t buy all the arguments against ID cards, and would have no worries about having one, I do agree that they won’t solve the illegal immigration crisis. Whilst an ID has a photo identity, unlike an NI number, those who work illegally aren’t providing NI numbers anyway, so won’t be providing a digital ID either!
Starmer is clearly panicking, as the public have lost patience with him. He’s over a year in and the problem of illegal immigration has got even worse and they are being trounced by Reform UK in the polls as a result. The ‘one in, one out’ policy is a complete farce (it needs to be renamed 50,000 in, 3 out!). His only bit of good news is that Corbyn can’t get his new party organised, which would split the Labour vote even further!
Anyway, getting back on topic (😂) the problems that VW are facing are being experienced by many other manufacturers as well. Almost all the car companies are lobbying the EU and the U.K. government stressing that the current EV mandates are destined to cripple the industry. What law makers (and some EV enthusiasts) just don’t seem to realise, is that it doesn’t matter what the targets or the laws are, you simply cannot force people to buy a product that they don’t want. Even though we are only in the first few years of the EV mandates, total new car sales have fallen significantly below the levels that they were pre Covid. Consumers are keeping their cars much longer, probably realising what a much better idea that is, with by far the biggest cost of new car ownership being depreciation.
Porsche is rolling back its EV plans and promising new ICE cars well into the 2030s, including the new K1 as an ICE-powered Super SUV.
Car manufacturers in Europe are between a rock and a hard place with the forced rollout of EVs mandated by legislation, particularly in the UK and Europe, with a real danger that many “will not survive” and an industry that is the bedrock of economies will crumble.
Just like all legacy car makers, Porsche has been trying to convince its customer base that the future for Porsche is EVs, but despite the Taycan being an impressive car, it has not been the success Porsche hoped for, with sales down by 49% in 2024 and used models crashing in value.
EDIT – 4 days ago.
Its no surprise VW are closing plants its been on the cards for the past 2 years. About 50% of their vehicle sales were in China, until the Chinese EV. Dragon took off and the vw customer base fell off a cliff.
Vw are just re aligning to the new reality of getting beaten by Chinese car sales. Most European manufacturers are in the same boat, cheap quality vehicles flooding the eu market and the knee jerk reaction by the eu? Put tariffs on chinese cars.
Put tariffs on chinese cars.
The EU tried that and China hit back with anti dumping in several areas. The EU looking to apply a set of anti dumping probes on China, China will respond, it gets you nowhere and if China limits EV battery materials such as cells, europes EV sector will grind to a halt.
The strange thing is EU manufacturers didnd want tariffs applied on Chinese cars, I guess the reason was because they are in bed with Chinese manufacturering partnerships in China.
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