Volkswagen cuts ID.3 and CUPRA Born production... what is going on?

Electric vehicle production is not going through a good moment in Europe. Although good news keeps arriving from China about the production of new models and rising sales in Asia, Europe is facing problems in generating enough demand to sustain production of its electric models.

During October, Volkswagen found itself forced to cut production of the Volkswagen ID.3 and CUPRA Born for two weeks at its Zwickau plant and also at its Dresden plant. Production of the ID.4, ID.5, Audi Q4 e-tron and Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron was also halted, again due to falling orders for these electric cars.

Now, the company has just announced that it has changed shift patterns at its Dresden factory, where the Volkswagen ID.3 and CUPRA Born are built. The plant will now run two shifts instead of the three it operated until now. It has not said how many units will no longer leave the plant as a result of this production cut, but it is known that the plant’s capacity is 360,000 units a year.

Despite that capacity, in 2022 only 218,000 units left the plant. Last month, the brand said it could not guarantee the contracts of 269 temporary workers, so significant cuts are expected.

What is the reason for this delay?

The cause of these difficulties is weak demand for electric cars, which is mainly affecting models built in Europe. The surge of cars arriving from China is putting pressure on European cars and making it increasingly difficult for manufacturers to keep up the production pace that had been planned.

In addition, the transition to electric mobility is slower than it seems, and this is slowing production of these models, which are not meeting the acceptance buyers had expected. This reality check may also lead to changes in the European Union’s forecasts for the rollout of these electric models, because not everything is going as planned.

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