German carmaker Volkswagen is trimming production due to weak demand, with its Zwickau and Dresden plants in eastern Germany pausing manufacturing for one week from October 6, the company told dpa.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine daily, which first reported on the issue, said Volkswagen’s manufacturing plant in Emden, on the North Sea, could be affected too. The company was in talks with the works council there, with a decision possibly due next week.
A decision to cut production at VW’s factory in the north-western city of Osnabrück has already been taken, with at least one closure day per week scheduled until the end of the year, VW confirmed. There will also be a one-week pause in October.
“Volkswagen adjusts the production programme in its plants to the current customer demand for the models built there,” a company spokesman in VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters said.
“In some plants this will lead to shift cancellations in the coming weeks.”
The main reason is weak demand for electric vehichles (EVs), which are built in Zwickau and Emden. Osnabrück is suffering from weak sales of the convertibles built there.
At the Wolfsburg headquarters, by contrast, there will continue to be extra shifts on almost all weekends until the end of the year, the spokesman noted. The reason is strong demand for the Golf, Tiguan and Tayron combustion-engine vehicles built there.
Unlike the EV plants in Emden and Zwickau, Wolfsburg only produces combustion-engine models, which are currently in demand. Extra shifts have been in place since May.
“Demand for Tiguan, Tayron and Golf [cars] is currently very good,” brand chief Thomas Schäfer said at the works meeting earlier this month. “To cope with this, we are running additional shifts in Wolfsburg.”