VW will not build a factory for Trinity, but one for the US brand Scout

There will be no new VW plant for the “Trinity” project, VW CFO Arno Antlitz confirmed in an internal interview. The carmaker had considered a new factory in the Wolfsburg district of Warmenau for the e-flagship. But these plans were now scrapped.

“We will not build any new electric factories in Europe, but transform the existing ones,” Business Insider quotes from the interview with the CFO, available to the editorial team.

It is therefore almost certain that the Trinity, which is being redesigned, will instead be built at the converted Wolfsburg main plant. In November, there were first reports that Group CEO Oliver Blume was questioning the construction of the planned electric car plant. In December, the news followed that VW will invest around 460 million Euros in the conversion of the Wolfsburg factory in a first step by the beginning of 2025. Among other things, because the ID.3 will also be built there.

Production was supposed to start in 2026, but nothing came of it. Blume and brand boss Thomas Schäfer discarded the previous design developed under Herbert Dies and initiated a new design in the direction of an SUV.

So while Volkswagen is not planning any new EV factories in Europe, the group will build its own plant in the US for its US electric car brand, Scout. “The decision to ramp up the plant itself is available as a draft resolution and has thus been made,” Automobilwoche quotes from company circles. Considerations that contract manufacturers Foxconn or Magna could build the plant for VW are therefore off the table.

VW wants to revive Scout as a pure EV brand for the USA. However, plans to manufacture vehicles externally has been in the balance since late last year. In particular, because employee representatives had expressed concerns.

In addition to Scout’s EVs, electric cars from Audi could also roll off the production line at the new plant. At least that is what the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. Audi also wants to produce electric cars in the US, in order to benefit from the subsidy package under the Inflation Reduction Act there. It makes building an electric car plant there “highly attractive,” Audi CEO Markus Duesmann told the FAZ.

That Audi will build its own plant is a possibility. “However, there is a probability that we will do this as part of the VW Group,” Duessmann says.

businessinsider.de (Trinity), automobilwoche.de (Scout), faz.net (Audi; paywall) via handelsblatt.com (all links in German)