Car crisis: VW locations in danger? The ten works at a glance

Volkswagen could see factory closures in Germany for the first time. According to works council boss Daniela Cavallo, at least three locations are under review. According to “Handelsblatt”, VW calculated this specifically for Emden, Osnabrück and Dresden. But nothing has been decided yet. The group itself has not yet provided any information about this. According to Cavallo, it could affect any work: “No one is safe!”

But how are the ten locations in Germany positioned so far? An overview:

For 50 years, the VW plant in Emden was primarily associated with one model: the Passat, which rolled off the assembly line from 1974. VW had opened the location ten years earlier – primarily because of the access to the port. The factory, which now has 8,600 employees, has now been converted into a purely electrical location. VW has invested more than one billion euros since 2020. Instead of Passat, ID.4 and ID.7 are now being built. Due to the weak demand for electric cars, the production lines were temporarily at a standstill. According to “Handelsblatt”, VW puts the possible savings from a closure at 600 million euros per year.

The former Karmann location came to Volkswagen in 2009 after the previous convertible contract manufacturer went bankrupt. Now the plant with around 2,300 employees is once again facing an uncertain future. In addition to the T-Roc Cabrio, vehicles are currently primarily manufactured for sister company Porsche: Boxster and Cayman. But at the beginning of October, Porsche canceled the hoped-for follow-up order for electric sports cars. When the T-Roc Cabrio and the two Porsche combustion engines are phased out at the beginning of 2026, the factory will be without a follow-up model, warns IG Metall. According to the “Handelsblatt”, VW expects savings of 130 million euros in the event of a closure.

It is the youngest and at the same time the smallest VW location: the “Gläserne Manufaktur” in Dresden. Founded in 2001 for the luxury Phaeton model, it was a prestige project by then CEO Ferdinand Piëch. But in 2016, VW pulled the ripcord in view of falling sales figures. Since then, the manufactory and its 340 employees have been struggling to find a new purpose. The ID.3 has been assembled since the beginning of 2021 – in small numbers. VW is now openly considering ending vehicle production in Dresden. Possible savings that VW expects according to “Handelsblatt”: 60 million euros per year.

The VW main plant on the Mittelland Canal is considered the largest connected car factory in the world. The facilities cover 6.5 square kilometers and around 62,000 employees work at the VW headquarters. The factory and the city of Wolfsburg were founded in 1938 for the production of the “KdF-Wagen”, which later became the VW Beetle. Today the Golf, Tiguan and Touran are built here. With an annual production of around 500,000 vehicles, the site is only half full. VW canceled the construction of another factory for electric cars in Wolfsburg in 2023.

Hanover was the group’s second German plant in 1956. Six years earlier, the first VW Transporter rolled off the assembly line in Wolfsburg. Now the “Bulli” got its own location. The transporter remained the most important model in Hanover until the sixth generation was phased out in mid-2024. Today the Multivan and the fully electric ID, which will be launched in 2022, are being built here. Buzz. The location has around 14,700 employees. Since 2020, staff have been reduced – without layoffs, by not filling vacant positions. 3,000 jobs have been lost since then, and another 2,000 are expected to follow by 2029.

August Horch laid the foundation stone for the Audi brand here 120 years ago, and the Trabant small car was built in Zwickau during the GDR era. After reunification, VW built a new factory on the outskirts of the city. Today, with around 9,500 employees, it is considered the flagship of e-mobility in the group. To this end, the car factory was converted completely to electric power by 2020 at a cost of around 1.2 billion euros, the first in the group. Like Emden, Zwickau is now suffering from weak demand for electric cars. Shifts have already been canceled and the contracts of temporary employees have not been extended.

The Volkswagen plant in Kassel is not in Kassel at all, but in nearby Baunatal. The site, founded in 1958, is now the group’s largest component plant in the world and, with 16,800 employees, the largest German VW location after Wolfsburg. Gearboxes and exhaust systems for combustion engines as well as the electric motors for the electric models are produced. Parts for the body and chassis are also produced in our own foundry. The location also has the largest spare parts warehouse in Europe, which sells original parts from the VW, Audi, Škoda and Seat brands worldwide.

Today’s components plant in Braunschweig is considered the oldest VW factory ever. The production of tools for future car production began here in 1938, even before the main plant in Wolfsburg. Today, the site employs around 7,200 people and produces, among other things, axles, brake discs and steering systems. Production takes place across three locations in the city. Braunschweig also plays an important role in e-mobility: Since 2013, the battery systems have been created here from cells delivered and are then installed in the e-cars.

The group’s currently largest construction site is in Salzgitter: the group’s first battery cell factory is being built right next to the existing engine factory. Production is scheduled to start in 2025, and Salzgitter will then “transform from the engine control unit to the cell control unit,” as VW announced. This is the second major transformation for the location, which currently has 6,350 employees. The factory was founded in 1970 to produce a new VW model, which then only sold moderately. Five years later, VW turned it into an engine factory. More than 800,000 gasoline and diesel engines were manufactured in 2023.

Volkswagen’s involvement in Chemnitz began before reunification. VW four-stroke engines for the GDR models Trabant, Wartburg and Barkas have been manufactured here under license since 1988. The whole thing was orchestrated by the then VW CEO Carl Hahn wor cden, a native of Chemnitz. After German unification, Volkswagen took over the engine factory. Unlike Zwickau, the location still depends entirely on combustion engines. Last year, the 1,800 employees produced 690,000 engines – exclusively for gasoline engines.