Persons are offended, automobiles aren’t promoting, and now for the primary time ever Volkswagen is prone to shut one in every of its factories in Europe – the state-of-the-art Brussels plant that makes the Audi Q8 E-Tron.
Again in September, Volkswagen-owned Audi mentioned that it wished to cease manufacturing on the Q8 E-Tron – an €80,000 electrical SUV that hardly anybody in Europe can afford – and put the manufacturing unit up on the market. In the meantime, VW has been on the lookout for buyers or different workarounds, with the corporate now saying that not one of the 26 events supplied any viable options for the way forward for the plant, as reported by Automotive Information Europe.
An inside search inside the firm for future automotive manufacturing or various makes use of for the plant was additionally deemed fruitless, in accordance with the report. “You will need to me that we shortly create readability within the info and session course of and now focus additional on the social plan discussions,” Audi COO Gerd Walker informed Automotive Information Europe. “We are going to proceed to pursue this in a trusting, goal, and honest method.”
For one, we are able to’t overlook the dismal gross sales numbers for the Q8 E-Tron, with the 120,000-vehicle-capacity plant reaching its peak in 2022 with 47,900 automobiles, in comparison with 37,400 Q8 E-Trons final yr. This yr, Audi has delivered 23,900 automobiles.
However different points have additionally plagued the Belgian plant. For one, it’s situated on a railway line, making enlargement unattainable, and there’s no physique store on website, that means imported physique elements need to be provided from different vegetation. The successor to the Q8 be made in Mexico, and Audi doesn’t plan to maneuver any new fashions to the Belgian plant.
The three,000 manufacturing unit staff employed there’ll probably lose their jobs, which is stirring up pushback from unions that argue that the corporate is just too resistant to think about different provides. “The one factor they need to do is shut the plant as shortly as attainable.,” mentioned Ronny Liedts of the ACV-CSC union, as quoted in Automotive Information Europe. “Not one of the alternate options work for them.”
Final month, large rallies blocked the Belgian capital over the potential closing of the plant, with unions warning of additional strikes and protests. Now, the manufacturing unit has turn out to be a logo for what protestors say is the true downside: It’s not that individuals don’t need to drive EVs, it’s that European automakers are specializing in massive SUVs that the common individual can’t afford.
“Automobile producers wished to make large income with electrical automobiles immediately and didn’t settle for that the transition section would generate fewer dividends and income,” Hillal Sor, a commerce unionist at Metallos FGTB, informed Euronews. “In order that they guess every part on massive, very luxurious, very costly fashions that European residents can not afford.”
Gross sales figures again this up: The primary eight months of this yr, some 902,000 electrical automobiles had been bought within the European Union, representing solely 12.6% of the overall quantity bought. To assist the EV transition, unions say which might be pushing for extra public funds. The European Parliament agreed final month to think about tariffs on Chinese language EVs and different protectionist measures are on the desk.
In the meantime, VW’s large manufacturing overcapacity at its German websites is forcing the corporate to think about, for the primary time ever, closing a manufacturing unit by itself dwelling turf.
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