The luxury car manufacturer Porsche uses the capacity of the due to the high demand Volkswagen– Plant in Osnabrück. From the middle of next year, overflow production of the 718 model series (Boxster and Cayman) should begin at the Lower Saxony site, the carmaker announced on Thursday in Stuttgart. The relocation has no effect on the number of jobs at the headquarters in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.
The multi-brand plant in Osnabrück has already been a proven partner in the Porsche production network in the past, said Albrecht Reimold (61), Member of the Board of Management for Production and Logistics at Porsche AG. The employees in Osnabrück have many years of experience.
The main plant in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen is very busy with the production of the 911 and 718 models. Porsche said it wants to fully electrify the 718 series by the middle of the decade. Despite the electrification, the 718 and 911 model series will continue to be produced on the 2-door line at the headquarters in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.
The high capacity utilization in the main plant is convenient for the employees of VW in Osnabrück. The relocation of production “makes a significant contribution to resolving very current employment concerns at the VW Osnabrück site,” said Prime Minister and VW Supervisory Board member Stephan Weil (63, SPD). However, this order from Porsche is not yet the long-term perspective of the location. “Volkswagen has decided to provide an answer in this regard with the next round of planning and we are counting on that,” emphasized the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony.
Utilization in Osnabrück fluctuates again and again
The Volkswagen site in Osnabrück with 2,300 employees emerged from the former contract manufacturer Karmann, which went bankrupt in 2009. As under Karmann, the plant serves as a production facility for small and very small series as well as for overflow production from other VW Group plants. However, there are always concerns among the employees about the strongly fluctuating capacity utilization of the plant.