Volkswagen to keep European plants: CEO

VIENNA - Reuters

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn poses for a photograph during the inauguration of Volkswagen’s 100th plant worldwide in Silao in this file photo.

German carmaker Volkswagen will keep its plants in Europe despite weak markets in the region that will require flexible manufacturing and could entail cuts to temporary staff, CEO Martin Winterkorn has said.

Winterkorn had told shareholders in Europe’s top carmaker last week to brace for a tough year given faltering European consumer demand that is punishing the sector.

In an interview with Austrian broadcaster ORF aired late on April 26, Winterkorn said VW would not follow the example of other automakers and scale back production in Europe. “No, we will not withdraw any capacity from Europe but rather preserve capacity in Europe,” he said. But he left the door open to trimming temporary staff that the company built up in boom years.

“The regular staff is certainly something we will hold on to. We will have to think about temporary staff,” he said.
Volkswagen planned to almost double production capacity in China over the next five years.