According to the “Christmas Peace” agreement of 2024, well-known in Germany, the carmaker’s Zwickau electric car plant was originally supposed to lose all models except the Audi Q4 e-tron, with production relocated to other sites. However, as early as a year ago, Volkswagen reversed its decision and announced that the Cupra Born would continue to be produced in Saxony for the long term — and that the ID.3 would also remain in production in the short term. Now, the German news agency dpa reports that the ID.3 will stay in Zwickau at least until the end of 2027, quoting Jürgen Mahnkopf, Volkswagen’s Deputy Works Council Chairman at the Automotive Forum Zwickau on Tuesday.
Now, less than 24 hours later, Christian Sommer, a spokesperson for Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH, has contradicted this information. According to the regional German broadcaster MDR, Sommer emphasised that the VW plant in Zwickau will still transfer ID.3 production to Wolfsburg next year. He stated that the facts remain unchanged and that the back-and-forth is particularly regrettable for the workforce.
The original plan had been to ramp up ID.3 production in Wolfsburg in parallel with Zwickau and then completely relocate it from Zwickau to the main plant over the course of next year. However, Mahnkopf stated yesterday at the congress that, for the time being, only the ID.3 GTI would be produced in Wolfsburg, and that retaining ID.3 production would compensate for declining volumes of the Audi Q4 e-tron, which is also built in Zwickau. This would have meant that the VW Sachsen plant would remain more diversified than previously planned for a while longer. However, the denial now suggests that Zwickau may soon produce only two vehicles.
The important collective bargaining agreement just before Christmas 2024 contained some unwelcome news for Zwickau in the distribution of models across German VW plants: The two compact MEB models from Line 1, the VW ID.3 and the Cupra Born, were originally supposed to move to Wolfsburg in 2026 with the facelift of both series. Of the electric SUVs built on Line 2, the ID.5 is being discontinued, and the ID.4 will only come from Emden (where part of the ID.4 is already produced today), leaving Zwickau with only the Audi Q4 e-tron and its Sportback derivative.
Almost two years later, the situation for the VW plant in Zwickau has at least improved slightly: While the ID.4 and ID.5 will be phased out at the end of the year, the relocation of the Cupra model to Wolfsburg has apparently been cancelled, and the ID.3’s move has at least been slightly delayed. The Wolfsburg plant was already prepared for ID.3 production a few years ago — specifically for overflow production. However, since demand was lower than expected, there was no overflow. Now, the complete relocation is likely to take place next year.
Currently, the production capacity in Zwickau is 300,000 electric cars per year. Even though the site will remain a multi-brand plant following the Cupra decision, the 8,000 employees currently face even greater changes in the future: With only two vehicles left, Zwickau is likely to scale back from two lines to one. Furthermore, as the factory is one of four German production sites within the group whose future is uncertain, there is a risk that all Volkswagen vehicle production could cease there after 2031.
