BERLIN, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Volkswagen hasproduced just 300,000 cars at its main Wolfsburg plant so farthis year, a company source with knowledge of the matter said,the lowest figure since 1958 and far behind its average outputbefore the pandemic.
The plant, which makes cars from the Golf, Tiguan, and Seatbrands among others, produced an average of 780,000 vehicles peryear in the past decade and the company said in 2018 it aimed toboost this figure to a million.
But supply chain problems meant just under 500,000 vehiclesmade it off the assembly line in 2020. This year's output, firstreported by Die Zeit weekly, is set to be even lower as the chipcrisis sets in.
Volkswagen has previously said it would have a productionshortfall in the high hundreds of thousands due to a lack ofsemiconductors, a problem plaguing automakers worldwide whichthe company expects to last well into 2022. A spokesperson said last week that discussions were underwayto address the competitiveness of the Wolfsburg plant, whichdoes not yet produce fully electric vehicles, particularly inthe face of growing competition from new entrants such as Tesla. The comments followed reports that Volkswagen CEO HerbertDiess had said at a supervisory board meeting in September thata delay in the transition to electric vehicles could cost thecompany 30,000 jobs - one in four of its current employees.
(Reporting by Jan Schwartz and Victoria Waldersee; editing byJason Neely)