Friday's settlement between Volkswagen and the IG Metall union means that the Golf will no longer be built in Germany. It will all be moved to Mexico.
A new crisis package to save the German car giant Volkswagen is causing major upheaval and factory closures.
35,000 jobs in Germany will disappear as a result of the "Zukunft Volkswagen" agreement, which was reached on Friday evening as a settlement between Volkswagen and the IG Metall trade union.
The agreement also includes a pay freeze for the remaining employees. The goal is to reduce capacity in Germany by 734,000 cars annually, thereby saving 3.5 billion Danish kroner.
One of the most significant changes is the relocation of Golf production from Wolfsburg to Puebla in Mexico.
The brand itself announced this in a press release .
Wolfsburg has been home to Golf production since the model's debut in 1974. But that will end in two years. The Wolfsburg factory will instead focus on producing the ID.3 and Cupra Born electric cars, as well as a new electric Golf, which is scheduled to be launched at the end of the decade.
The Dresden factory, which produces electric cars, will also be closed completely by the end of 2025. However, Volkswagen has hinted that the plant could possibly be part of a "third-party program." In addition, the Osnabrück factory, where the T-Roc Cabriolet is produced, is set to close in 2027. Unless an alternative is found.
Electric car production in Zwickau, where the ID.4 and ID.3 are currently manufactured, is also being significantly reduced. In future, the factory will only build the Audi Q4 e-tron and Audi Q4 e-tron Sportback on a single assembly line. Production of the ID.4 will be moved to Emden, where the ID.7 and ID.7 Tourer are currently produced.
Volkswagen management had originally wanted more extensive changes. But the bosses had to give in to unions and ownership interests from the state of Lower Saxony. Still, CEO Oliver Blume believes the agreement is enough to save Volkswagen.
– The agreement is an important signal for the future profitability of the Volkswagen brand, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and the component factories.
"With the agreed package of measures, the company has set a decisive course for the future in terms of costs, capacity and structures. We are now back in a position to successfully shape our own destiny," says Oliver Blume.
