BERLIN
German auto large was contemplating pulling plans for a brand new manufacturing facility at its Wolfsburg HQ as software program points threatened to delay new fashions, in accordance with native media studies Thursday.
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As not too long ago as March, Volkswagen introduced plans to take a position two billion euros ($2.1 billion) into the plant to deal with “Trinity” autos, the centre level of its new all-electric fleet.
However issues with software program improvement for the brand new mannequin may push again the supply by “two to a few years” from the 2026 goal, in accordance with German monetary every day Handelsblatt.
A delay may make a purpose-built manufacturing facility in Wolfsburg redundant, giving time for the present manufacturing facility to be retooled, the paper reported.
“We’re at the moment taking the chance to have a look at all tasks and investments and checking their viability,” CEO Oliver Blume wrote in a letter to Volkswagen staff after the media studies.
“First, we are going to come to selections collectively on software program,” adopted by the “product technique” and the organisation of its manufacturing services, Blume wrote within the letter with VW model boss Thomas Schaefer.
It was nonetheless “too quickly to make any concrete statements” concerning the conclusions of the assessment, the pair mentioned.
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The reassessment of Volkswagen’s electrical technique follows Blume’s arrival as CEO in September and marks a break with former boss Herbert Diess.
After his arrival in 2018, Diess pushed the legacy automaker into embracing electrical autos to show the web page on the “dieselgate” emissions-cheating scandal.
However his hard-driving type and reward for U.S. rival Tesla, which opened its personal purpose-built manufacturing facility on the outskirts of Berlin earlier this 12 months, ruffled feathers internally.
The Austrian lastly misplaced the arrogance of Volkswagen’s principal shareholders — the Porsche-Piech household – as issues mounted within the group’s software program division.
