Representatives from politics and business are meeting in Zwickau to discuss developments in the crisis-ridden automotive industry in Saxony. At the "Future Forum" automotive dialogue, around 100 participants are looking to find new ways together to secure long-term industrial value creation in the Free State of Saxony, as announced by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The Saxon automotive industry has been able to overcome many challenges in recent years, emphasized Minister of Economic Affairs Dirk Panter (SPD) before the meeting. These included chip shortages, production under pandemic conditions and supply chain problems. It is now particularly painful that VW's Zwickau site, of all places, which has been "transformed to e-mobility in an exemplary manner", is suffering from the foreseeable decline in combustion engine production at its traditional sites.
Electric car production at Volkswagen in Zwickau broke the one million mark at the beginning of May. Since November 2019, the car factory has been the first site in the VW Group to produce only fully electric vehicles. This means that almost every second registered electric car from the Volkswagen Group comes from Zwickau.
Around 1.2 billion euros have been invested at the site to convert it into an all-electric car factory. However, it is also suffering from the fact that demand for the vehicles is not picking up as much as hoped. As a result, many temporary contracts have not been extended and the night shift at the two production lines has been canceled.
According to the ministry, Saxony is one of the top five German automotive locations with six vehicle, engine and battery plants operated by Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. Every eighth car and 40 percent of all fully electric cars built in Germany come from the Free State. In 2023, the automotive industry employed 95,000 people in Saxony. The sector accounts for 28.6 percent of Saxony's industrial turnover and 39.7 percent of Saxony's foreign industrial turnover.
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