Audi announces short-time work as microchip shortage continues

Munich (dpa) – The German carmaker Audi is extending the summer holidays of around 10,000 workers at its plants in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm because of a shortage of semi-conductors.

The employees will work short-time, a company spokesman said on Thursday, and added that the measures would mean a cut in production of several thousand planned cars.

At the main plant in Ingolstadt, all assembly lines will be at a standstill until August 30. Two of these close-downs are caused by the microchip shortage, the other because of conversion work for the start of production of the all-electric Q6 etron.

In Neckarsulm, the larger part of the production with about 4000 employees is on standstill for several days due to chip shortages.

Audi has also announced short-time work for September as a precautionary measure, but at the same time has planned additional shifts on several weekends.

The company has full order books, but was unable to build about 50,000 cars in the first half of the year due to a lack of components.

When components are delivered, the carmaker will try to catch up with the lost production. “You have to plan from week to week. In the past, even planned additional shifts had to be cancelled,” the spokesperson explained.

CFO Juergen Rittersberger warned in July that there could be further production stoppages and short-time work in August and September due to semiconductor shortages. Where possible, the chips would be installed in vehicles with the highest profit contribution and the lowest CO2 emissions.

Other carmakers are also short of microchips.

Due to the shortage of semiconductor components, production at Volkswagen’s main plant in Wolfsburg is to start only on a limited basis after the summer break.

A spokesman for VW said on Thursday that all production lines will only run in one shift in the coming week. However, the spokesman could not say how many employees would be affected.

The company has already had to adjust its production programme several times as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

BMW could probably sell 70,000 to 90,000 more cars this year without the shortages, according to chief financial officer Nicolas Peter.

“At the moment, however, all plants worldwide are well supplied,” a BMW spokesman said on Thursday. In Leipzig, production is running normally, in Munich and Dingolfing it will restart as planned after the summer holidays on Monday, and Oxford will also restart next week.