VW plans new plant to rival Tesla’s German gigafactory
Carmaker aims to produce futuristic model at new site to catch Musk in electric vehicle race
Volkswagen plans to build a new factory near its German headquarters, the company revealed on Tuesday, in order to produce a futuristic electric model designed to catch-up with Tesla.
The second Wolfsburg plant would be devoted to manufacturing VW’s Trinity, a concept car the group hopes to bring to market from 2026.
It would aim to match the efficiency of Tesla’s factory near Berlin in being able to produce a vehicle in 10 hours, VW said.
The announcement comes as the company’s leadership is locked in a bitter dispute with its powerful works council, which represents the vast majority of the carmaker’s 290,000 employees in the country and in effect holds the majority vote on its supervisory board.
Two weeks ago, the council accused chief executive Herbert Diess of “behaviour that is unprecedented in the history of the group” after he privately suggested that VW had 30,000 excess staff in Germany in the run-up to the group’s annual investment strategy announcement.
Daniela Cavallo, the chief of the works council, also attacked Diess’ constant comparisons of VW to Tesla, and pledged to protect every single job at Wolfsburg — Europe’s largest car factory, which employs 60,000.
Diess had pointed out that it takes three times as long for VW to produce its flagship ID.3 and ID.4 electric models in Germany as it takes Elon Musk’s company to produce its Model Y midsize sport utility vehicle.
VW indicated that it would be cheaper to construct a new factory than retrofit the existing site to produce electric vehicles economically. It did not provide details of how much the plant would cost to build or run.
The new factory, which was endorsed by the works council, would produce 250,000 cars a year, in addition to about 500,000 already manufactured at the existing site in Wolfsburg. Musk expects Tesla’s German factory to produce 500,000 vehicles a year, once it is running at full capacity.
VW’s Trinity model will be fully autonomous, so-called Level 4 self-driving capability, although a human would have to remain up to taking control of the vehicle if required.
Workers’ representatives are still hoping that one of VW’s current electric line-up will also be built at the existing Wolfsburg facility.
“We are in talks with the works council on this,” said Ralf Brandstätter, chief executive of the VW brand, “but the economic conditions have to be created.”
VW’s supervisory board still has to approve the plan. An announcement is expected in December.