Volkswagen Has Good News About Supply Chain Issues

Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess recently spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. According to Diess, Volkswagen is still experiencing a supply-chain issue due to the global semiconductor chip shortage and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

There is some good news, however. Diess mentioned that he had seen a clear improvement as far as chip supplies are concerned. Volkswagen was one of the first to come out and admit that the chip shortage was going to hurt the automotive industry in May 2021.

Volkswagen must have figured out how to combat the shortage since last month when it expected to chip shortage to run well into 2024.

VW’s finance chief, Arno Antlitz, mentioned that the burden would be eased in the third or fourth quarter of 2022 and that the structural problem would only be fixed in 2023.

VW still has a massive problem on its hands, however. Orders are higher than ever, most likely due to the introduction of the VW ID.4. The brand’s first mass-produced EV is a smash hit, and VW will be following it up with other highly-anticipated EVs like the ID. Buzz. It’s an excellent position to be in if you can actually build the cars. Thankfully, these are the kinds of cars people would be willing to wait for.

Due to supply shortages, VW (and Audi by association) have long waiting lists. Audi even had to drop safety features from its models, trying to sell them as a package.

The Ukrainian invasion caused significant problems for VW. In addition to building VW and Skoda models, the Kaluga plant also produces 1.6-liter four-cylinder engines and wiring looms. The latter created a big problem for VW, as every car in existence, EV or not, requires a wiring loom. This problem has now been sorted.

As for battery packs, VW finds itself in a good position. According to Automotive News Europe, Diess said he is confident it can secure enough batteries to supply its EV production up to 2025.

“Are there enough batteries? Probably not. Are there as many batteries as we ordered? Yes, for sure,” Diess said.