Audi lends staff to Porsche to ramp up Taycan production

Porsche can hardly keep up with production due to the high demand for the Taycan electric luxury car, so reinforcements are coming from the group’s sister company, Audi. 400 employees from Neckarsulm are moving to Zuffenhausen for two years to help out.

The German publication Automobilwoche gleaned the news from an Audi spokesperson. The first Audi employees have already been working for the sister company since June, and more are to follow in the coming months across all areas of production.

The Taycan has only been in production for the last year, but many orders were placed before production started that Porsche had already increased capacity to 40,000 units per year and hired 500 more employees than originally planned. In the meantime, the targeted number of units has almost been reached. “We are currently producing more than 150 Taycans a day,” said a Porsche spokesman who added: “We are still in the ramp-up phase.”

Due to the high demand for the Taycan and the Corona crisis, Porsche had already postponed the start of the planned Taycan Cross Turismo. According to the original plans, the Cross Turismo should be launched this year. However, as Porsche boss, Oliver Blume told Bloomberg last week, assembly of the shooting brake version of the Taycan will start in early 2021.

When the loan of the Audi employees comes to an end, they are to return to the plant in Neckarsulm and will bring back some experience in building electric cars. Porsche has decided against an assembly line for the Taycan; instead, driverless transport platforms form the core of production. Audi, on the other hand, plans to start production of the e-tron GT – an electric sedan closely related to the Porsche Taycan – in the Böllinger Höfe in Neckarsulm at the end of this year.

automobilwoche.de (in German)