At the Volkswagen plant in Zwickau, the fear among the workforce is almost palpable. “The lighthouse of electromobility is running out,” says a poster that is displayed in one of the assembly halls – clearly visible to the state and federal politicians who visited the plant on Monday. Zwickau was once the showcase factory for electromobility; the first car factory to convert entirely to battery vehicles. But capacity utilization has been too low for months, and last week the Zwickau site made the full extent of the misery visible: due to a lack of demand, the production lines came to a standstill. The Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) has now tried to encourage the more than 8,000 employees during a visit with Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (SPD). “The Free State of Saxony is in close contact with Volkswagen.” said Kretschmer: “It’s not always free of conflict, but we have a common interest. We want to preserve the location.” “As Environment Minister, I have two goals: Firstly, well-paid jobs in industry and secondly, climate-friendly cars,” the Federal Environment Minister seconded. “That’s why this work must continue to exist,” said Schneider, who was the federal government’s Eastern representative in the traffic light coalition. The two politicians held talks with management and employee representatives on site on Monday. They then appeared to make a statement in the assembly hall, where the production lines were just starting up after production stopped. The mere fact that only a few months after the agreement between Volkswagen management and the Group works council on the preservation of all locations in Germany the continued existence of a plant has to be sworn to again shows how serious the situation is. Job cuts across all locations Last year, the management of Volkswagen (VW) threatened to close plants in Germany. In the end, it was agreed to cut 35,000 jobs across all locations. The plant in Zwickau is to be reduced in size, but not completely closed. But market realities had recently raised new doubts about the viability of the agreement. Demand is weak and excess capacity throughout the automotive industry is enormous. Just a few days ago, Prime Minister Kretschmer wrote to VW in a letter demanding guarantees for capacity utilization in Zwickau and for the future use of the small location in Dresden. However, he was brushed off by the VW leadership. “We talked very intensively about the market situation, about the homework that we as manufacturers have to do and where politics can continue to support us,” said Thomas Edig, Managing Director of Human Resources and Organization at VW Saxony, on Monday after the meeting. Concrete statements for future planning were hardly heard, also because the “planning round” was just getting started in the group, the annual struggle for investments and the allocation of certain models to the plants. The location can at least claim that two compact models will remain in the plant longer than planned. The ID.3 will probably not be relocated to Wolfsburg next year; the Cupra Born could even stay permanently in Saxony, according to company circles. Production of the Audi Q4 Etron also appears to be secured for the time being. Production is still ongoing: The ID.3 electric compact car is being assembled in ZwickaudpaThe ID.4 model, however, will soon be produced entirely in Emden as planned. The freed-up capacity should also be used to position Zwickau as a pioneer for entry into the circular economy. But recycling vehicle parts would only create a few hundred new jobs. These are not convincing future prospects for one of the oldest automobile locations in Germany. Capacity utilization has been low for a long time, and this year the plant, which is designed to produce up to 360,000 cars, will only build a little more than 200,000 vehicles. “I am relying on the commitments that we have worked hard to achieve in the past few weeks,” Kretschmer said in the hall. Saxony is a country of automobile manufacturing and people can be sure that the plant will last for years to come. “The supervisory board and the executive board have made this commitment and I have no doubts about it.” The new purchase bonuses for electric cars agreed at last week’s car summit are an opportunity, but the conditions need to be clarified quickly so as not to temporarily cause further burdens for the industry. Ultimately, customers will keep their feet still until there is clarity about the funding.More on the topicThe car summit also showed that e-mobility will play a major role, but cannot reach 100 percent by 2035, said Kretschmer, who, in addition to promoting electric cars, is also campaigning for a postponement of the de facto ban on new cars with combustion engines. Because the automobile state of Saxony does not drive purely electrically either. Almost 2,000 employees work at the VW engine plant in Chemnitz, where more than 700,000 combustion engine engines are built every year. Their situation seems almost paradoxical; Because of the high demand for combustion cars, they build a lot of gasoline engines. But they don’t yet have a real perspective on their future role in e-mobility.
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