VW Group Works Council boss Cavallo
“The company will certainly not get into the mass production of ordinary semiconductors,” says Cavallo.
(Photo: dpa)
Wolfsburg According to the new head of the works council and supervisory board member Daniela Cavallo, the VW Group will face difficult decisions in the coming months despite the good overall situation. “There are some issues that are not easy and that we have to negotiate this year,” she told the German Press Agency about the next planning and investment round, which is to be adopted in autumn. Short-time work due to the ongoing shortage of semiconductor components and opportunities to better prevent such bottlenecks in the future, they also dealt with.
In November, the Volkswagen Supervisory Board, on whose Presidium Cavallo sits, is to approve the updated medium-term forecast – always one of the most important dates of the year for Europe’s largest car group. In addition to updating the strategies for electromobility, digitization and climate protection, it should also be about location issues, said Bernd Osterloh’s successor.
“In general, the planning round 2021 will be a very fundamental one, because for the first time it will be very broad and therefore very specific for many locations,” said Cavallo. She also referred to the EU climate targets (“Green Deal”).
The VW Group has not yet finally decided where the other European battery cell plants – apart from Salzgitter and Skellefteå (Sweden) – should go. According to reports, the headquarters of Seat in Martorell, Spain, should have a good chance, for example, while Porsche boss Oliver Blume spoke out in favor of a factory for high-performance cells in Tübingen. Traditionally, issues such as site utilization and model occupancy also play a central role.
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The delivery difficulties for electronic chips, which have caused production to be shut down several times locally, are far from over for many car manufacturers. Volkswagen is no exception, said Cavallo: “That continues to be a real concern for our colleagues in production. They experienced that we had to take short-time work at irregular intervals. ”The situation remains delicate for the time being, its seriousness is now clear. “My impression is: The complexity of the supply chain situation is well known, and everyone knows how much of a state of emergency there is for purchasing, logistics and production planning, for example.”
Considerations for setting up an in-house chip development at VW should therefore also be seen as a kind of learning effect from the acute supply crisis. “The company will certainly not get into the mass production of ordinary semiconductors,” said Cavallo. “But with more specialized high-tech components that differentiate themselves from the competition, a stronger commitment is quite likely. So far we have hardly had anything about this in the Group. ”In analogy to her experiences with batteries, she said:“ That doesn’t mean that you do everything yourself. But it should be your own competence. ”
In the group works council, she will also focus more on the upcoming election campaign in the next few months, announced Cavallo. In March 2022, the employee representatives at VW will be redefined. “A large employee survey is still pending this year.”
More: Daniela Cavallo is Volkswagen’s first head of the works council – who she is and what sets her apart