Shanghai. Volkswagen plans to halt production at one of its combustion car plants in China, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said, in a sign of automakers’ struggles to manage excess capacity in the world’s largest vehicle market. .
The automaker, along with its joint venture partner SAIC Motor, will gradually shift production of its Passat family cars from the Nanjing plant to a nearby factory in the same eastern province of Jiangsu, the source said.
But the joint venture does not have a definitive timetable for the move and has not yet decided whether it will completely close the factory or put it up for sale, he added.
Some workers at the Nanjing plant would have to move to work at the SAIC-VW plant in Yizheng, where the brand’s best-selling Lavida sedans are currently manufactured, added the person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Both parties are also studying plans to revive Skoda sales, according to the source. The brand only represents one percent of SAIC-VW’s total sales, while in 2018 it represented 17 percent.
Bloomberg News first reported on Wednesday the two companies’ plans to close two factories in Nanjing and Ningbo. Volkswagen said it does not comment on speculation. SAIC was not immediately available for comment.
Two sources denied that the joint venture partners plan to close the Ningbo plant, their largest after their three factories in Shanghai.
Volkswagen, long the best-selling automaker in China, is suffering from a decline in its market share in the country and is working with SAIC and other partners such as Xpeng to bring to market new models that it hopes will be more competitive.
Reuters reported earlier this year that SAIC intended to cut ten percent of jobs in 2024 at SAIC-VW and other partners, amid a sharp decline in sales. The joint venture sold 1.2 million cars in 2023, 43 percent less than at its peak in 2017.
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– 2024-09-29 03:41:39
