VW’s motor bottleneck continues to affect the Group

After the VW plants in Zwickau and Emden announced about a week ago that they would have to cut back their electric car production due to the lack of motors, a Skoda spokeswoman now told German Handelsblatt that the shortage of electric motors will also affect the production of the Skoda Enyaq in Mlada Boleslav “in November and December.”

According to the Handelsblatt report, production of VW’s ID. models in China is still on track, although the Cupra Tavascan built in China for the European market can only be supplied with electric motors to a limited extent. Production of the VW ID.4 at the US plant in Chattanooga has not yet been affected by the bottleneck.

The report also provides more background information on the problem with electric motor production. It was already known that the new APP550 motor, built at the VW component plant in Kassel, Germany, is at issue. Two people familiar with the matter confirmed to Handelsblatt that errors occurred during the ramp-up of a production line there, so significantly fewer electric motors can currently be manufactured at the site than would be technically possible.

A spokesperson for the components division confirmed that the production of electric drives at the Kassel site is “currently only possible to a limited extent.” In November and December, the concerned vehicle plants can thus “expect production restrictions”. According to the insiders, the problem lies with a system that produces stators for the APP550. The plant can currently only reach around 30 per cent of the technically promised capacity. Over 50 VW employees are working in a task force to rectify the problem.

The background to the bottleneck is that the 150 kW PSM previously used on the rear axle of several Volkswagen Group models is being replaced by the new APP550. It offers 210 kW of power and 550 Nm (instead of the previous 310 Nm) of maximum torque. At the same time, the new electric motor is more efficient, thus increasing the range. The new motor will be installed in the ID.4, ID.5 and ID.7 model series, the Audi Q4 e-tron, the Skoda Enyaq and the Cupra Tavascan.

According to a report published by the Freie Presse last week, VW is allegedly trying to avoid jeopardising the production ramp-up of the new VW ID.7 in Emden. For this reason, more of the available APP550s will be delivered to Emden. Between Thursday last week and Monday this week, there was apparently “only” a five-day break – including the weekend.

handelsblatt.com (in German)