VW Plots New German Electric Car Factory to Counter Tesla
VW Plots New German Electric Car Factory to Counter Tesla
(Bloomberg) -- Volkswagen AG may build a new electric car factory near its global headquarters to make a new model code-named “Trinity” designed to close the technology gap to Tesla Inc. and challenge traditional rivals with highly automated driving features.
A brand new plant making about 250,000 cars annually close to the main factory in Wolfsburg would be less complex than retooling the existing operations, VW brand chief Ralf Brandstaetter said. A final decision could be made next month when key stakeholders review the group’s five-year spending plans.
“We feel that the competition from old and new rivals is intensifying, and we need a strong answer to this,” Brandstaetter told reporters at the German automaker’s main plant. “We have a team here at VW brand that can do this.”
Talks over how to keep Wolfsburg, the world’s largest car plant, competitive in the shift to electric vehicles has seen tensions rise between Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess and the company’s powerful labor leaders. Diess urged workers last week to prepare for faster reforms to keep pace with Tesla as the electric car leader ramps up output at its first European factory outside Berlin next year.
He warned Tesla is swiftly improving quality and might radically shrink production time to just 10 hours per car at the Gruenheide plant. VW’s main electric car factory in Zwickau needs more than 30 hours per vehicle, which should be reduced to 20 hours next year, according to Diess.
Brandstaetter said VW is targeting a similar goal of about 10 or 12 hours per vehicle as well by cutting down on vehicle options for buyers. A new assembly in Wolfsburg would offer more efficient logistics and cause less interference for the ongoing production of the popular Golf and Tiguan models, he said.
VW’s namesake brand will build the successors of the two high-volume models in Wolfsburg and plans to add a seven-seater SUV. Two of Wolfsburg’s four existing assembly lines could switch to making electric cars around 2027, Brandstaetter said.
Key stakeholders approved the Trinity project last year to build VW’s first high-volume car on new standardized underpinnings that span the entire product range of Europe’s largest automaker. The car will also feature a new software stack for so-called Level 4 highly automated driving.
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