Auto industry: Despite the chip crisis: no production stops at VW for the time being

Despite the chip crisis, there will be no production downtimes at Volkswagen next week. As things stand today, vehicle production at the German locations will be secured for the coming week, the company said.

“The delivery bottlenecks at the Dutch chip manufacturer Nexperia currently have no impact on production in the Volkswagen brand’s vehicle manufacturing plants in Germany,” said a spokesman. “As things currently stand, the driving style in the coming week will also be secured at all other German production sites of the Volkswagen Group.” This also applies to the subsidiaries Audi, Porsche and VW Commercial Vehicles.

Seat and Škoda also continue to operate

The same applies to the Škoda and Seat plants in the Czech Republic and Spain, a spokesman added when asked. The group’s own component factories in Germany would also produce normally next week.

How things will continue in November cannot yet be estimated. “Given the dynamic situation, short-term effects on the Volkswagen Group’s production network cannot be fundamentally ruled out,” said the spokesman.

On Wednesday, VW warned of possible production downtimes, which were also possible at short notice. The reason is delivery problems at the chip manufacturer Nexperia. “Given the dynamic situation, effects on production cannot be ruled out in the short term,” VW said in an internal communication at the time.

Search for replacement suppliers

On Thursday, brand production director Christian Vollmer expressed confidence that production stops would be averted. Negotiations are currently underway with possible replacement suppliers who could compensate for the loss of delivery of Nexperia semiconductors, he told the “Handelsblatt”. A spokesman added that VW is in close contact with potential suppliers.

Nexperia is experiencing delivery problems after the Dutch government took control of the company run by a Chinese parent company. China then stopped exports of Nexperia products such as chips for the auto industry. Other manufacturers and suppliers are also affected. The background is the trade dispute between the USA and China.