VW: Transparent Factory in Dresden to Cease Automobile Production

Dresden is going offline – at least from the Volkswagen production network. According to "Automobilwoche," citing company sources, vehicle production in the "Gläserne" will be terminated. Dresden was a flagship project of ex-CEO Piech, who began Phaeton manufacturing there in the spring of 2002. Since then, more than 150,000 units of the VW Phaeton, Bentley Flying Spur, VW e-Golf, and ID.3 models have been built. In 2022, 6,500 ID.3 units rolled off the assembly line in Dresden – serving as "overflow production" for the Zwickau plant. Now, car production is to be discontinued, but the location will remain. The approximately 300 employees will be assigned other tasks instead of assembling the ID.3, including in the areas of innovative manufacturing and testing.

Background: Currently, the plants in Zwickau and Emden already have overcapacities of the less demanded ID. models. Jobs will also be cut in Zwickau, and the partly independent "Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH" is to be fully integrated into the production network. In Zwickau, the ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, the Cupra Born, and the Audi Q4 e-tron in both SUV and Sportback versions are currently rolling off the assembly line.

The news agency DPA reported at the end of last week that despite the underutilization in Zwickau, the group is sticking to the expansion plans made in 2022: The Audi Q4 e-tron is to be produced in Brussels from the end of 2023 and the ID.3 in Wolfsburg from fall. The latter is to occur "initially in small quantities" and would take over the "overflow" from Dresden.