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An important location in the VW Group's factory network: the Bratislava plant
Photo: Jaroslav Novák / dpa
As a result of the global shortage of microchips, the Volkswagen site in Slovakia must also reduce its production.
From Thursday, Volkswagen Slovakia will stop production of its SUV models at the Bratislava plant.
The belts are expected to stand still until May 7th.
Small car production, however, continues, as company spokeswoman Lucia Kovarovic Makayova announced on Monday.
A week ago she had already confirmed that production restrictions could hardly be avoided.
At that time, however, she could not give any details about the dates and affected models.
The Bratislava location occupies a key position within the Volkswagen Group because cars of five brands are manufactured there at the same time and the plant is able to take over the production of other international locations if necessary.
Daimler and Audi also affected
The approximately 12,000 employees of Volkswagen Slovakia in the capital Bratislava and two smaller locations are currently assembling the VW Touareg and Porsche Cayenne as well as the Audi Q7 and Q8 as well as the Volkswagen Up, Seat Mii and Skoda Citigo models.
The chip shortage is increasingly becoming a burden for industry - and could further delay the economic recovery in Europe.
Last week, the car manufacturers Audi and Daimler had to cut back on their production because of the phenomenon.
Audi has restricted production at the Neckarsulm plant, and the production lines for the A6 and A7 models are initially due to stand still until April 30th.
Daimler has also announced that in the near future it may be sending more employees than previously known on short-time work.
In the coming weeks there could be production stops and short-time work due to the chip crisis "here and there".
There are several reasons for the shortage.
For one thing, the pandemic has increased the demand for electronics.
On the other hand, important production capacities were lost, for example due to the fire in a chip factory in Japan and in Texas due to freak weather.
beb / dpa