Posted 07/12/2018 11: 36: 16CET
WOLFSBURG (GERMANY), 7 Dec. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The head of Sales and Marketing of the Volkswagen brand, Jürgen Stackmann, has assured that the German automobile consortium is “very happy” with the performance of the company in Spain and that the production in the factories of Landaben (Pamplona) and Martorell (Barcelona ) is insured for “enough time”.
In an interview given to Europa Press in the framework of the annual brand session held by the German manufacturer in Wolfsburg (Germany), Stackmann said that the German group is “very satisfied” with the operation of its Spanish plants and that the cuts of employment of the corporation “will not affect” Spain.
“They are a reference within the group and an example in productivity, although we are heading for electric mobility, combustion engines still have a long way to go and will remain an option for years, they can rest assured that production is guaranteed for a long time” , he stressed.
Volkswagen expects to produce 350,000 units by 2019 at the Navarra factory in Landaben, 175,000 of its new model T-Cross SUV and many others of the Polo. Currently, it assembles some 1,400 daily units of Polo and employs some 5,000 people.
From December, the factory will make, for the first time, the manufacture of the Polo with the T-Cross and will produce about 700 daily units of each model, which will require the incorporation of about 1,000 new employees to produce also with shifts in order to week.
For its part, the Volkswagen group produces the Seat Ibiza, Arona and Leon models and the Audi A1 in Martorell, which will end the year with a production volume of 474,000 cars, a reduction of 27,000 units compared to the company’s planning. before the summer, due to the stoppages caused by the lack of engines with the new WLTP approval.
The models that Volkswagen manufactures in Spain are based on the MQB platform, which already uses approximately 60% of the conventional models of the German brand, a percentage that will increase up to 80% by 2020.
ELECTRIFICATION
However, the Volkswagen group is already preparing for electrification and will invest a total of 44,000 million euros in electromobility, autonomous driving, new mobility services and in the digitalization of vehicles and plants, which represents close One third of the total investment that the company will make for the period between 2019 and 2023.
Within the plans of the German consortium, the Volkswagen brand will invest 11,000 million euros in the same concept also between 2019 and 2023, of which 9,000 million will go to its electrification offensive.
The company will transform its Zwickau, Emden and Hanover plants into electric car production factories and establish its second electric mobility center in the federal state of Lower Saxony (Germany).
For its part, the first factory of the Volkswagen group designed specifically for the modular electrical platform MEB is starting its construction in Anting, Shanghai.
On the other hand, Stackmann affirmed that by the end of 2018 all engines of the brand will be homologated according to the new WLTP test cycle and that it will be the market demand that will determine the end of the combustion engines “It is difficult to make forecasts”, He pointed out the information published in the international press that ensured that the next generation of diesel and gasoline engines of the German manufacturer (which will arrive in 2026) would be the last.