VW produces ID.3 and ID.4 at the limit - but the demand is significantly higher. This is not the only reason why VW dealers can now only get new e-cars by quota.
The VW plant in Zwickau, Saxony, is the first car factory in the world to have managed the transformation from a production facility for cars with combustion engines to a purely electric car location. For this effort, which is also imminent for most other car factories worldwide, VW has invested 1.2 billion euros and first convinced all employees of their new job and then trained them for production. Since June 27, 2020, no combustion engine vehicles have rolled off the assembly line in Zwickau - the production of electric vehicles began at the end of 2019 with the ID.3 . In the meantime, the VW ID.4 , the Cupra Born , the Audi Q4 e-tron and, for two weeks now, the ID.5 have also come from the factory. But the demand for electric cars is currently so high that VW cannot meet it. As an immediate measure, the Wolfsburg-based company has therefore only been allocating ID.3 and ID.4 to its dealers by quota since February 4, 2022.
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No problem with a lack of chips
VW dealers who sell up to 199 vehicles a year only get five ID.3 and six ID.4 - the two electric models then account for 5.53 percent of the total sales figure . If you sell more than 1,000 vehicles, you can offer 35 ID.3 and 50 ID.4 - that's 8.5 percent of the total sales figure, but in absolute terms, of course, rather few cars. What is striking about the quotation is that dealers who only sell up to 199 vehicles per year receive a significantly higher percentage than dealers who sell up to 499 (3.8 percent) or 999 (4.0 percent) vehicles per year. And given the rate of 8.5 percent for dealers who sell more than 1,000 vehicles, it should be borne in mind that the rate falls with every additional vehicle sold. The quota has nothing to do with the chip shortage that has been plaguing the auto industry for more than a year - the production of electric cars has priority in the allocation of processors at VW.
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Quotas due to large orders
The vehicle allocation according to quotas is basically nothing new for the trade, but common practice for models that are in high demand. When the ID.3 was launched, for example, the dealers themselves campaigned for a quota - manufacturers and dealers want to use such upper order limits to achieve a balanced distribution of the coveted vehicles in retail and for customers. Fleet customers have disturbed this balance in the recent past: Due to large orders of 1,000 or more ID.3 and its SUV variant ID.4, the dealer concerned was no longer able to accept private orders. With the quotation, VW wants to ensure that the two electric car models are also available to private customers.That's why there is no quota for the ID.5: The SUV coupé version of the ID.4 is not a fleet vehicle. All details about the ID.4 can be found in the picture gallery!
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Expansion of production
For the German market, ID.3 and ID.4 are currently only produced in Zwickau. In order to expand production, VW is converting its plant in Emden in Lower Saxony – the production of the Passat Variant goes to Bratislava in Slovakia, where the Octavia, with which the Passat shares a component group, also rolls off the assembly line. Production of the ID.4 is scheduled to start in Emden in spring, which could ease the production situation just as much as the start of production of the ID.3 planned for 2023 at the VW main plant in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. For the Chinese market, the models are made in the plants in Foshan (FAW-Volkswagen) and Anting (SAIC Volkswagen), for the US market VW is converting its plant in Chattanooga (US state of Tennessee) - production of the US Passat, the large SUVs Atlas and Atlas Sport are still rolling off the assembly line.
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Long delivery times
Irrespective of the quotas, there are currently longer delivery times for VW electric models: customers have to wait around four months for the ID.5, nine months for the ID.4, and for the ID.3 it has to wait the customer even has to be patient for more than nine months. However, production of the ID.3 is not yet sold out for 2022: anyone who orders now will get their car this year. If you order from Easter, however, you must expect to be delivered in 2023. If one size smaller is enough for you: VW has put the e-Up back in its program for this spring after the plant in Bratislava has processed the 16 months of order backlog.
Conclusion
There are enough processors, but the production capacities are limited: The VW plant in Zwickau is currently the only plant that supplies the German market with ID models. The workers toil at the stop - but the demand is higher than the output. So that fleet customers do not now buy all ID.3 and ID.4 from the market, VW has quoted the allocation of cars to dealers - it is important to Wolfsburg that private customers can also buy electric cars.
VW is working feverishly to expand production of the ID.3 and ID.4. ID.4 production will start in Emden this spring, and ID.3 production will begin at the main plant in Wolfsburg in 2023. This should relax the tense demand situation and lead to shorter delivery times in the medium term.
