VW electric car: Semiconductor shortage hits group harder than expected
Created: 12/22/2021, 10:46 AM
By: Alexander Eser-Ruperti
The automotive industry is hit hard by the semiconductor shortage.
At Volkswagen, too, production is obviously more affected than feared.
Wolfsburg - Production at Volkswagen is stalling, the reason for this is once again the serious shortage of semiconductors.
The outlook is bleak and the VW electric car is also affected.
The Wolfsburg-based company reveals difficulties in achieving its production goals.
VW recently published its plan for the next few years.
Group: | Volkswagen AG |
Segment: | Automobile manufacturer |
Headquarters: | Wolfsburg |
Volkswagen and its VW electric car are more affected by the semiconductor shortage than feared - "the worst is still ahead of us"
VW works council boss Daniela Cavallo also spoke of another dry spell in relation to the chip crisis.
In Volkswagen's works council sheet “Mitbestimmen” she found clear words for the semiconductor shortage: There would still be a shortage of supply for the whole of next year “and things will not suddenly get better in 2023,” said Cavallo, also with regard to the planned production offensive for the VW electric car.
She adds "We still have the worst ahead of us".
The
manager-magazin is
now reporting
that
Volkswagen could face difficulties
to implement his recently presented, ambitious production plan for the next few years.
For the year 2022, VW had declared that they wanted to produce almost ten million cars, the following year even a million more.
In view of Cavallo's words, that hardly seems realistic.
The semiconductor shortage hits the group and the VW electric car hard.
The VW plant in Emden: Here the lack of semiconductors is already causing job losses among temporary workers.
At other locations, the bottleneck also affects the production of the VW electric car massively.
© Sina Schuldt / dpa
Only recently, Volkswagen had indicated a possible slow relaxation in the chip crisis for the coming year.
In his VW plant in Emden, however, temporary workers are already losing their jobs.
Most recently, the semiconductor shortage in Emden had already resulted in a production stop.
Volkswagen is making great strides with the VW electric car - but that cannot change the semiconductor shortage
Volkswagen is one of the pioneers in the field of e-mobility with its VW electric car, but it has recently become public that the Wolfsburg-based company is still keeping a back door open to diesel burners apart from e-cars.
VW boss Herbert Diess, for his part, had recently stated that an earlier exit from the internal combustion engine was not feasible.
Nevertheless: The company is investing massively in e-mobility.
The group will gradually find solutions to many of the problems of the electric car, and its investments are paying off.
Volkswagen recently announced that its e-cars would soon be able to communicate independently with charging stations.
If three students from Achern have their way, charging will soon also be possible using street lamps. * Wireless charging without e-car charging stations could also become an issue for VW models in the future.
Volkswagen is making great strides in the direction of e-mobility, including the construction of a new plant for the VW electric car from the Trinity range in the Wolfsburg region.
Despite all the joy about the leaps in innovation, one should also look to the near future with concern at VW: As large as the leaps in development are, they have not yet been able to remedy the semiconductor shortage.
VW electric car: In perspective, it could not only be the lack of semiconductors Volkswagen and the electric car that could be fatal for him
Currently it is the semiconductor shortage that threatens the VW electric just as much as the models from other manufacturers.
In the future, however, an answer has to be found for another question.
The topic does not only affect the carmaker from Lower Saxony, because it is generally about critical raw materials: In a study, the Institute of German Economy (IW) warns of the prospect of a shortage of more than twenty important raw materials.
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This applies in particular to materials that are important for electric car batteries, including lithium, cobalt and graphite. Politics, science and industry have to find solutions. Recently, researchers from Germany had made great strides in battery technology. Here, too, there is a need for innovation - because the raw materials required are by no means infinite.
It becomes clear: The steps towards e-mobility are particularly big at Volkswagen.
Nevertheless, there are still many questions to be clarified, not just for the Wolfsburg-based company, such as the problems with the charging pillars for e-cars.
The shortage of semiconductors impressively shows how quickly an entire branch of industry can be slowed down - so that this does not happen more often in the future, long-term planning and further innovations are required. * Kreiszeitung.de and merkur.de are an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.