VW resumes three shift operations in Zwickau

Volkswagen resumed three-shift operations at its MEB plant in Zwickau on Monday. With the start of the Ukraine war, production had been interrupted for around three weeks in March due to disrupted supply chains before restarting on a reduced scale.

VW was one of the first carmakers to be affected by production stoppages in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Numerous models – including the six MEB series built in Zwickau – were fitted with wiring harnesses manufactured by the supplier Leoni in western Ukraine.

On 29 March, production started in the early and late shifts and around 900 vehicles a day. Since then, production has been running at this level due to the supply chain. “The parts supply is now so stable again that with the third shift we now have additional capacity in Zwickau to work off the high order backlog,” says Stefan Loth, Chairman of the Board of Management at Volkswagen Saxony.

The third shift will increase daily production to around 1,300 vehicles. In addition to the Volkswagen ID.3, ID.4 and ID.5 models, the Audi Q4 e-tron (and Sportback) and the Cupra Born are also built in Zwickau. In addition, 35 ID.3s are built each day at the Transparent Factory in Dresden.

At the time of the production interruption, Zwickau was the only MEB plant in Germany – but Skoda was also affected by the missing wiring harnesses with its production of the Enyaq and Enyaq Coupé in Mlada Boleslav. In the meantime, MEB production has become more widespread: The VW plant in Emden moved from pre-series to series production in May, and the ID. Buzz is now being built in series in Hanover.

In Germany, the ID.4 and ID.5 are the most popular MEB models. According to sales figures (where the SUV and SUV coupé are recorded as one model series), the ID.4 and ID.5 are in fourth place in terms of electric car registrations this year with 5,618 units. The Czech-built Skoda Enyaq follows in ninth place with 4,796 units, while the ID.3 was delivered 4,464 times and ranks 12th in the electric car statistics.

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