It's been almost four weeks since Volkswagen unexpectedly announced that there may be a closure of its factories in Germany. Now it appears we have the first facility to close its doors. If the current situation does not change, the Volkswagen plant in Osnabrück will not receive new orders from Easter 2026, as Porsche changes its plans for electric cars.
It's no news to automotive news followers that Volkswagen has been struggling with its car sales for some time. Specifically, customers are not buying as many cars as Volkswagen's management would like, so the expected revenues are much lower than the planned numbers. The situation is equally bad for internal combustion engines and electric models.
But one of the main reasons for the problem is the high cost, which Volkswagen launched a program to reduce last year. The cost reduction program launched in 2023 was intended to improve the balance sheet by ten billion euros by 2026, but weak development of new orders has exacerbated the situation. That is why, at the beginning of September, there were already reports that for the first time in its decades-long history, Volkswagen had to close its factories here in Europe, especially in Germany.
Naturally, German trade unions reacted to the news immediately and threatened to strike, but they certainly did not think that a work stoppage would cause further losses to the company, which might force further cuts. It's a vicious cycle, but you have to start breaking out of it somewhere if Volkswagen wants to survive this period.
Unfortunately, the outlines of the first attempt to do so have already been outlined, even at the level of plant closure previously mentioned. German SPIEGEL according to The Volkswagen plant in Osnabrück will not receive a new order for the production of additional cars from Easter 2026. The reason for this is that Porsche does not want to continue producing cars here beyond the mentioned contract period. In the magazine article, this information was confirmed by a Volkswagen spokesperson. So, if everything is true and this Volkswagen plant will definitely close in the spring of 2026, it is again a good question whether another announcement will follow the current one.
Currently, three models from the VW Group are manufactured here: VW T-Roc Cabrio (The conventional model is produced by Volkswagen at its Portuguese plant). However, this type only contributes a small number of units to production, and most of the capacity here is restricted to two Porsche models, 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman. These cars have been produced here since 2022, because they can no longer find space for their production at Porsche's main plant in Zuffenhausen.
The problem begins here, as Porsche will soon remove these models, and will not bring anything to replace them, so the factory will remain underutilized, which is what Volkswagen cannot do in the current situation. Porsche currently calculates that its main plant will be able to meet the currently restrictive requirements. There is no need for Osnabrück, so no new production tasks will be brought here from spring 2026.
