Job cuts at Volkswagen's Zwickau plant due to low demand for electric cars

For weeks now, uncertainty has been growing at the e-car factory in the face of sluggish demand. Many employees are expressing concern. Now shop stewards from IG Metall have addressed the management with a letter. "Enough is enough! We finally want answers," the newspaper Freie Presse quoted from the letter on Wednesday. Questions are loud about why the E-cars are not better advertised and whether the plant remains a 3-shift location.

Alarm bells are also ringing in the state government. "In the next few days, perhaps hours, we will hear unfortunate news," said Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) at a CDU regional conference on Tuesday evening, according to "Leipziger Volkszeitung". Meanwhile, the AfD gave the state government a share of the blame for the misery, spoke of an "E-car aberration" and urged technology openness, "to save thousands of jobs."

VW has converted its plant in Zwickau in recent years for 1.2 billion euros to a pure factory for electric vehicles. The last combustion engine ran there 2020 from the volume. In addition to ID models, vehicles of the Audi and Cupra brands are also produced. Last year, 218,000 e-cars were built, according to earlier figures. This year, production was supposed to increase - up to 360,000 vehicles would be possible at full capacity. Instead, it could now come to the reduction of shifts.