Volkswagen announced plans to limit the production of its electric vehicles at a pair of German plants due in part to declining demand levels in Europe coupled with weakened government subsidies.
According to a spokesperson, Volkswagen will be dialing back production of its ID.3 and Cupra’s Born EVs at its Zwickau factory until October 16. The spokesperson added that VW is currently holding talks with labor representatives from Zwickau to ramp production back up of the EVs sometime during the second half of October.
Simultaneously, the assembly of the ID.3 at Volkswagen’s smaller-scale Dresden plant will be halted for the first two weeks of October, according to the Financial Post. After that two-week period ends, operations are expected to return to normal.
Prior to this announcement, earlier in September, VW announced it was being forced to lay off 269 temporary employees at its Zwickau plant.
The decision to scale back production came shortly after the German government elected to end its subsidy program for electric vehicles in September. Prior to the program ending, the country saw a 171% year-over-year increase in new registrations for EVs during August.
