The company’s plants in Emden and Hanover will be converted to build electric vehicles, with models rolling off the assembly lines from 2022. The former will produce small/mid-size vehicles of various brands, while the latter will focus on ID.Buzz models These two plants join the Zwickau plant, where ID family electric cars will be produced from 2019. And to support growth thereafter, the group will expand production capacity post-2022 with an additional plant in Eastern Europe.
Image: From left: Stephan Weil, Minister President of the State of Lower Saxony and member of the supervisory board of Volkswagen AG; Dr. Herbert Diess, chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen AG, Ha;s Dieter Pötsch, chairman of the supervisory board of Volkswagen AG; Bernd Osterloh, chairman of the general and group works council and member of the supervisory board of Volkswagen AG.
Production of the Volkswagen Passat family will be moved to the Škoda plant in Kvasiny, Czech Republic, and these models will be built there together with the Škoda Superb and Kodiaq from 2023. The Škoda Karoq and the SEAT Ateca, currently produced in Kvasiny, will be transferred to a new group multi-brand plant in Eastern Europe.
Flexible multi-brand plants will become increasingly common in order to harness the advantages of a flexible production network, with a 30% increase in productivity by 2025 targeted, the company said. The environmental impact of group plants is to be almost halved within the same timeframe.
The Volkswagen Group will invest €44 billion in e-mobility, autonomous driving, new mobility services and digitalisation over the coming five years to the end of 2023 - approximately one-third of all expenditure for the 2019-2023 planning period.
Cooperation with competitors is also envisaged, with the group already talking with Ford about a range of light commercial vehicles. “Ford and Volkswagen will nevertheless remain competitors, as the proposed cooperation does in no way concern commercial, marketing or pricing strategies,” it was stated. Additional fields of cooperation outside the light commercial vehicle segment with the potential for expanding collaboration have also been identified, the company statement added.
Volkswagen employs more than 660,000 employees all over the world – 290,000 of them in Germany. Said group and general works council chairman Bernd Osterloh: “The transformation poses enormous challenges for our workforce and the whole automotive sector. Here at Volkswagen, we are shaping this change from a position of strength and thus sending a clear message to the entire industry. We are bringing the future to Germany: emotional electric vehicles, innovative mobility concepts and the megatrend of autonomous driving are being built and made real right here in our backyard. That offers great opportunities for Volkswagen and the workforce.”
There will be fewer jobs required in the production of electric vehicles, he added, but said: “Fewer jobs as a result of this transition is also part of the overall picture. That is something we have stated on several occasions. I am aware that that is why many colleagues, particularly in Emden and Hanover, are worried about the transformation. As employee representatives, we have taken action: a 10-year employment guarantee excludes compulsory redundancies until the end of 2028. We can make adjustments via the demographic curve so that no one loses their job.”
