VW pauses EV production in Emden due to bottleneck

VW is temporarily reducing the production of electric cars at its factory in Emden, Germany. Assembly of the ID.4 and ID.7 electric models has been suspended there since yesterday and is expected to continue until Monday due to a lack of electric motors, as at the Zwickau plant.

It was announced yesterday that production on production line 2 in Zwickau is paused because too few drive systems are being delivered to the plant. According to a report in the German Freie Presse newspaper, the assembly line there is expected to remain idle until 1 December. VW’s ID.4 and ID.5 as well as Audi’s Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron are built on production line 2. More than 1,000 of the total of around 8,000 employees are expected to be affected by the production shutdown.

The picture is the same in Emden: however, the break will probably only last five days (including the weekend). A plant spokesperson told the news agency dpa.

The background to the bottleneck is that the 150 kW PSM previously used on the rear axle of a number of Volkswagen Group models is being replaced by the new APP550. This not only offers 210 kW of power, but also 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.

According to the Freie Presse report, there are disruptions in the supply chain during production of the APP550 at the VW components plant in Kassel. As a result, fewer of the drive unit, also known as the “performance electric motor”, will be delivered than originally planned. The few APP550s that are available will increasingly be delivered to Emden: In order not to jeopardise the ramp-up of production of the new VW ID.7 in Emden, the statement continues. The plant in Lower Saxony will not be able to continue production without a break, however.

Zwickau production on production line 1, where the VW ID.3 and Cupra Born roll off the production line, is not currently affected. The familiar electric motor with 150 kW output and 310 Nm torque is currently still being installed in the two compact models. There does not appear to be any disruption to the supply chain for this unit – even though the drive unit is also manufactured in Kassel.

Volkswagen had already stopped electric car production in Zwickau on production line 1 for around two weeks in October due to weak demand. Production of the two models has since resumed in three shifts.

süddeutsche.de, ndr.de, spiegel.de, freiepresse.de (all in German)