Automakers: Cooperation with Ford will be a Bulli boomerang for Volkswagen
With Ford, VW wanted to save billions and at the same time lead Hannover into the electric future. But the calculation did not work out. Now the traditional Bulli factory is fighting for its future.
Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume is touring the company's German plants, including Hannover, where 12,000 employees are facing uncertainty about the site's future. The Hannover plant, which produces light commercial vehicles, is struggling with high costs and low production volumes, with only 113,500 vehicles produced in 2025, down from 200,000 in 2017.
A deal made in 2019 between VW's predecessor Herbert Diess and Ford's Jim Hackett, where VW took over development of the Caddy and Ford developed the successor to the VW Transporter T6.1, has contributed to the problems in Hannover, as the site lost production of the high-volume Transporter model. The plant's issues are also attributed to the failure of other projects, including the electric "Landjet" and the ID.Buzz, which has not met sales expectations.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report — not a translation of it. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
