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On Sept. 27, Volkswagen Group suffered a major IT system outage at its German headquarters, causing the plant to stop production. A Volkswagen spokesman said a network component IT failure occurred at its global headquarters in Wolfsburg, which affected the entire group, including Porsche and Audi brands. An Audi spokesman confirmed that the brand's production work was indeed affected and was currently analyzing the extent of the impact, while Porsche had no immediate comment.

It is reported that production lines at four Volkswagen plants in Germany, including Emden, Zvico, Oswebruck and Wolfsburg, have been suspended, and it is not clear when they will be able to resume production. In addition, parts factories in Brunswick, Kassel, Chemnitz and Salzgitter also have varying degrees of impact.

Volkswagen pointed out that the above failure occurred at about 12:30 at noon is currently being analyzed, the failure will indeed have an impact on car production, but the impact is still uncertain. Volkswagen added: "according to the current analysis, the system failure is unlikely to be caused by an external attack, but the Volkswagen Group is giving priority to solving this problem and is progressing smoothly."

As of press time, Volkswagen officials have not made a detailed explanation of the above incident.

According to the official website, Volkswagen Group, founded in 1938 and headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany, is the largest car company in Europe and one of the first foreign car companies to enter the Chinese automobile market. it owns Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Porsche and other well-known brands, and has invested in joint ventures in China, including FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC-Volkswagen, Volkswagen Anhui and other joint ventures.

In the German market, Volkswagen currently has four factories producing electric cars in Zvico, Hanover, Dresden and Emden. Among them, the Zvico factory is the largest production base in Europe, with an annual production capacity of 300000 trams, producing Volkswagen ID3 and Audi Q4e-tron models based on Volkswagen Group's special platform for electric vehicles MEB. The revamping of the plant began in 2018 and Volkswagen ID.3 was officially put into production at the Zwickau plant in November 2019 and delivered to the European market in the following spring. Data show that the factory produced a total of 218000 electric vehicles in 2022.

Zwickau factory

The Emden plant began to transform into a pure electric car factory in 2019, upgraded in 2020, and officially began to produce electric cars in 2022. ID.4 is the first electric car produced by the plant, and Volkswagen ID.7 electric cars are also produced at the plant.

The Oswebruck plant, formerly owned by body maker Karmann, produces Karmann Ghia, a sister car of the Volkswagen Beetle Coolpad, which went bankrupt in 2009 and was later acquired by Volkswagen to produce the new golf Cabriolet convertible with an annual production capacity of 100000. It is understood that the factory has a complete body production, spraying and assembly workshop system.

As for the Wolfsburg plant is Volkswagen's largest car production plant in the world, located in Wolfsburg, Germany, is an important production base of Volkswagen Group in Europe. The plant was established in 1938 and mainly produces internal combustion engine models including Golf, Tiguan and Touran.

According to Automotive Industry concern, there has been a spate of layoffs and shutdowns at Volkswagen's German plant recently, but unlike the reasons for the shutdown, it was more due to weak market demand and poor model sales.

On Sept. 14, Volkswagen considered laying off workers at its Zwickau plant in eastern Germany because of weak demand for electric cars. Volkswagen said it had laid off a total of 269 employees at the plant whose 12-month contracts expired recently and would not be renewed. In addition, Volkswagen will also adjust the shift work at the factory. But a Volkswagen spokesman pointed out that the group is still 100% convinced of the road to the development of electric vehicles, in which the Zvico factory plays a central role.

Volkswagen plants in Zwickau and Dresden will stop production of VW's ID.3 and Cupra Born models in the first two weeks of October because of weak demand, a Volkswagen spokesman said on Sept. 26. It is reported that Volkswagen's Zwickau plant will cut production of new cars during the autumn holiday in Saxony from October 2 to October 13, while the Dresden plant will suspend production of ID.3 electric models from October 2 and resume production from October 16. However, as of press time, Volkswagen did not respond to the news, and it is not clear whether the shutdown will affect the number of factory employees involved.

With the great changes taking place in the global auto market, traditional automakers are facing a lot of pressure. As one of the established car companies in the world, Volkswagen is not only in a difficult period of electrified transformation, but also faces the external impact of Tesla and China's new energy vehicles. At the same time, as the stronghold of Volkswagen, the European market is also facing high inflation and cuts in electric car subsidies, resulting in weak demand in the European electric car market.

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