Volkswagen slows production at Wolfsburg factory due to chip shortage

German carmaker Volkswagen said that a shortage of microchips and other electronic components at its main plant in Wolfsburg is significantly slowing down production.
All assembly lines apart from one will be at a standstill in the coming week at the sprawling factory in central Germany, a company spokesperson said late Tuesday.
Volkswagen will shift affected employees to short-time work, a German government scheme to subsidize the wages of out-of-work employees so that struggling companies don't have to fire them.
Europe's biggest carmaker blamed the continued inability to get enough semiconductors to put into their vehicles.
VW Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch had said on the sidelines of the IAA Mobility auto show at the beginning of September that the shortage of large quantities of electronic components was unlikely to end anytime soon.
The company has already had to adjust its production schedule several times during the pandemic.
Global demand for cars plummeted when the health crisis erupted last year.
In response, many chip makers switched their focus to other sectors such as information technology manufacturers, or producers of consumer electronics or medical technology.
Carmakers among others are now struggling with bottlenecks as economies recover.