The European-American multi-brand group of Stellantis has just announced that it has temporarily interrupted work in several European car factories. The group wants to adapt the production pace to the “challenging” market in Europe and “control as efficiently as possible” by the end of the year, as the company announced this week. Many parking spaces are obviously filled with new cars, and the heel remains behind the expectations. In particular, the still weak business with electric cars – a development that has now also prompted other manufacturers to produce production. Volkswagen wants to leave the work in his Zwickau electric car factory in the week after next. Among other things, the models ID.3 and Cupra Born are built there, which are to be relocated to Wolfsburg in two to three years. The location in Saxony has long been under pressure because e-mobility develops weaker than hoped; At the Audi Q4 E-Tron, some of which exported to America, new US tariffs also dampen the business. The VW location Emden is also not busy as planned. According to reports, talks with the works council have a decision about closing times, a decision could be made in the coming week. A factory spokesman emphasizes that nothing has been decided yet. Zwickau has confirmed the lock week. Conferred Laufen still the VW group has been reducing the capacity of his works for years and had agreed with the Group’s Works Council on a hard savings program last December. The demand flaut now has interventions at several locations. In Hanover, the production stands for five days during the autumn holidays due to a cautious demand for the ID Buzz and the T7 Multivan. According to F.A.Z. Recherchen, Osnabrück will shorten each company week by at least one day and take an additional lock week in October; The weakness of the convertible segment is on the production, Porsche only runs there until the end of the year, and Osnabrück is currently missing the additional production as an overflow. The situation in Wolfsburg is different: the combustion models Golf, Tiguan and Tayron are running well, many special shifts are planned by the end of the year, and you ask in Emden, Osnabrück, Zwickau, Hannover and Bratislava for temporary help. At the same time, a dry spell threatens if the Golf is shifted to Mexico. The workforce should now fill up its time accounts in order to be able to reduce working hours later. Fix costs for saving production settings are usually carried out in the auto industry if measures such as slowing down, less layers or decommissioning individual production lines no longer help. Driving down factories in a temporal block also has the advantage that fixed costs such as electricity and water consumption decrease more. Maintenance work can also be better done. Stellantis in Italy has had production often rested on individual days due to weak demand; The transition to a longer interruption in a row now shows that the demand weakens significantly and that the warehouse structure has become threatening. More on the theme of the Alfa Romeo Tonale, Stellantis drives the production in the Pomigliano plant at Naples twelve days. In Madrid, where the Citroëns group builds, work even rests for two weeks. In the Opel plant Eisenach, the Autobau will come to a standstill for two days. Nevertheless, Stellantis does not want to paint black at least to the outside world. According to the latest figures from the ACEA manufacturer’s association, the new registrations increased by an average of 2.2 percent to a good 106,000 passenger cars in August last year. But in the eight months of August there was a decline of 7.4 percent and a wastage of the market share from 16.2 to 14.9 percent. VW, on the other hand, has slightly increased its market share from 26 to almost 27 percent. At Stellantis, a hope is the Alfa Romeo brand, which has increased its sales by almost 36 percent by August. Alfa Romeo is increasing, otherwise the new registrations at Alfa Romeo even increased by more than 62 percent. However, Alfa Romeo’s quantities are hardly significant. The highest volume stellis brand, Peugeot, has an increase of 3.3 percent by August. In contrast, Citroën, Opel-Vauxhall and Fiat are significantly in the minus this year. The declines at Lancia and Chrysler, in which the new registrations have decreased by almost three quarters since January, are particularly strong. According to industry experts, the decision of the temporary production setting also goes back to the fact that the fleet purchases of corporate customers, who mostly concentrate on the end of the year, are expected. In addition, Stellantis probably lost market shares due to delays in the market launch of key models such as the Grande Panda or the Citroën C3 Aircross, appreciate the analysts of the investment bank Mediobanca. The market for light commercial vehicles is also weak.
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