VW Wolfsburg: Special shifts for T-giants – rush for combustion engines!

VW Wolfsburg: Special shifts for T-giants – rush for combustion engines!

An intensive program with special shifts will be launched at the VW plant in Wolfsburg until the end of September. These additional working hours are intended to meet the high demand for popular combustion engine models such as the Tiguan, Tayron and Touran. News38 reports that .... Employees should top up their working time accounts with overtime in order to protect themselves against the coming decline in production. A smart move, as such special shifts have been carried out regularly at the main plant since the beginning of the year. According to the decision of the company and the works council, work is now being carried out on all four assembly lines in order to keep the factory frequency as high as possible.

The T lines, in which models such as the Tiguan are produced, are particularly in demand. The additional shifts on weekends, as well as the Saturday work in the Golf assembly lines, illustrate the great commitment. More hours must also be worked in the paint shop and body shop. While Wolfsburg production runs almost without interruption, the Emden plant has extended plant holidays due to lower demand for the ID.4.

A look into the future

The pressure at the Wolfsburg plant has direct relevance for VW's strategic planning. The flexibility of the location is seen as crucial for the long-term positioning of the company. Especially with regard to future challenges, such as the end of Golf production in 2027, it is important that employees' time credits create a buffer zone in order to be able to better deal with changes. A possible introduction of four-day weeks is therefore not ruled out.

The surprising decision to increase production in Wolfsburg is also due to the fact that an increase in sales figures of over five percent compared to the previous year was achieved in the first quarter of 2023. This is particularly noteworthy since last year production at the main plant was already higher than in the weak previous years, while other locations had to contend with a decline in electric models. In 2023, VW plans to produce a total of up to 600,000 cars in Wolfsburg, even if the technical capacity at the main plant is expected to fall from over 900,000 vehicles to under 600,000. ORF reports that….

Sustainability and production optimization

VW not only thinks about production numbers, but also about environmentally friendly ways of creating vehicles. According to the Volkswagen annual report, production capacity is being reduced worldwide in order to achieve more sustainable goals. A clear focus is on process optimization and minimizing effort to deliver high quality products at competitive costs. The company uses initiatives such as the digital production platform (DPP) to simplify processes and achieve a reduction in environmental impact.

In the coming years, the path to emissions-neutral production will become increasingly relevant, and VW has already taken over 1,700 measures in the areas of environment and energy. The developments surrounding vehicle production and logistics show that the group is ready to adapt new technologies and approaches. The use of battery-electric trucks and biogenic fuels in the network will play an important role in the future. In this way, VW remains on course to face the challenges of the automotive future.