A third shift resumed at the Zwickau factory in Germany
This will allow the company to reduce its EV backlog
The supply shortages seem to have eased a bit in Volkswagen’s case
Volkswagen restored the third shift at its Zwickau factory yesterday, a sign that the supply shortages affecting the automotive industry could be easing up.
This factory is the main electric vehicle hub for the company, which means that the automaker will now be able to work on clearing its backlog, which is quite long for certain models.
This is made worse by the fact that almost all of the Volkswagen Group’s EVs are made in Zwickau, including the ID.4 and the Audi Q4 e-Tron. Fortunately, the ID.4 is also being produced in Emden and the upcoming ID.Buzz will roll off another assembly line, in Hannover. Volkswagen is also looking at producing EVs destined for the North American market in Tennessee, which will further reduce the load on Zwickau.
Back in March, the Russian invasion of Ukraine disturbed Volkswagen’s supply chain, notably due to a lack of wiring harnesses, which forced the company to pause production for three weeks.
Since then, the factory reopened, but only with three shifts, which resulted in a production of around 900 vehicles per day.
Now, the supply chain seems to have stabilized enough to support added production, so Volkswagen is bringing back the third shift which, it hopes, will boost the output up to 1,300 vehicles per day.
It will be interesting to see if this improvement of the production constraints will reach other automakers that operate factories in Germany since this could be a sign that the remnants of the Covid crisis in the automotive industry are on their way out.
