VW cancels ID.3 production in Wolfsburg

The car was to be the first electric model to be produced at the main plant in Wolfsburg. Volkswagen has now announced that it will continue to build the ID.3 exclusively in Saxony. Demand remains too low.

A VW spokesperson said as much on-site on Friday. The ID.3 assembly starts at the main plant planned for the summer and has been cancelled again.

“At the end of the day, every euro that we don’t have to spend counts,” said Christian Vollmer, Member of the Board of Management for Production, explaining the decision in an interview. “For this reason, we have decided to continue to bundle the volume of the ID.3 in Zwickau and to effectively utilise the already fully scaffolded site.”

VW already had to cancel shifts at its EV-only site in Saxony in late 2023, also quoting low demand. Last year, VW delivered a total of 140,800 ID.3 cars. Cancelling additional production in Wolfsburg was, therefore good news for Zwickau, said Vollmer. However, the existing ID.3 assembly line in Dresden, where the car is also being built in small numbers, is unaffected, the spokesman added. Assembly there will continue.

Initially, VW reportedly envisioned the then-refreshed “new ID.3” for spring 2023. The updated model was to be built not only in Zwickau and Dresden but also at the main plant in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony.

handelsblatt.com

6 Comments

about „VW cancels ID.3 production in Wolfsburg“

vike

09.03.2024 um 20:39

With its worst software problems apparently behind it and given the sales volume concerns, VW's decision to withhold the ID.3 from the U.S. looks increasingly questionable. While in theory the U.S. market is more inclined to mid-size crossovers like the ID.4, just about everybody jumped into that segment and has gotten rolled over by Tesla's Model Y because of Tesla's superior DCFC infrastructure in the U.S.. Meanwhile, smaller local-use vehicles are especially appropriate for BEVs given the high percentage of multi-car households in the U.S., and with GM having dropped the Bolt, Nissan engaged in an extended practical joke delivering the LEAF with CHAdeMO DCFC (in a market that left CHAdeMO behind years ago), and Mini's SE with limited range and utility, the ID.3 would have had no real competition if VW could have brought it to the U.S. at or (better) just below $30k US. By futzing about, VW might have missed a window of opportunity likely to close once Mexican-built Chinese BEVs start showing up (maybe even the Tesla Jr., but who knows?)

Vily Frederiksen

10.03.2024 um 13:42

Bring the ID3 to North America !!

Speedfriend

10.03.2024 um 21:36

IT is amazing how much attention is given to VW managing EV production at Zwickau when the Tesla factory in Berlin which should have been at 500k capacity by mow is running at less than half that level

William Tahil

11.03.2024 um 12:04

How can there not be a good market in Europe for an e-Golf-type car from Volkswagen? Something is not right - the limitations of battery EVs per se, the excessive cost of EVs, constrained critical materials supply leading to "excuses" - what is going on?

Brian

12.03.2024 um 16:14

We had two Golf’s in our home before we took delivery of our ID4 . We would have happily ordered an ID3 if it were offered here in Canada! VW. Knows how many Golf’s it sold and there’s still so many of these great cars on. the road here today ! Americans like big cars … Canadian s are a bit more like euro folks in that they don’t have to have a big car or mini van! Get this model tested for Canada and start shipping them. They will sell here if you have sorted out all the bugs in the early editions of the model. VW got so much bad ink for this model being released with many faults before it should have been released.

Nathanael

11.04.2024 um 03:12

Agreed. Where's the ID.3 in North America? People want it.