“VW has to fight for every car”
VW is fighting against chip shortages. (Image: VW)
No time right now?
VW sales director Klaus Zellmer sounds the alarm. The VW Group lacks electronic components for vehicle production. More than 100,000 cars could therefore not be built.
In an interview with the Handelsblatt VW sales director Klaus Zellmer finds clear words. VW will “fight for every car in 2021,” said the manager. The manufacturer lacks chips, especially for golf production in Wolfsburg.
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Demand underestimated
Accordingly, the manufacturer stopped production before Christmas and does not want to resume until mid-January. But that is not the end of the matter.
The lack of chips will affect at least the first quarter of 2021 and prevent the construction of a six-digit number of vehicles. Zellmer expects the situation to ease in the second quarter, but is uncertain. Nobody can “predict with absolute certainty that we will then have a complete normalization of the situation,” said the board of directors, who is also the USA boss of Porsche.
VW had to ascribe the reason for the deficiency to itself. The group simply underestimated the demand for cars in the corona crisis and ordered too few chips.
E-transformation not affected, software development in full swing
However, this should not be an excuse to slow down the process of transformation towards electromobility, emphasizes Zellmer. This will be continued unhindered and has now even been accelerated again through the tightening of the climate targets as part of the EU’s new “Green Deal”: “In future, we will have to produce around 300,000 additional battery-powered vehicles every year.”
In the new year VW wants to make software updates for its Stromer also available over the air. However, the group does not want to start with the ID-3, the already available compact power, but with the E-SUV ID-4, known as the world car, which is expected to arrive at dealerships in the course of the first quarter of 2021.
