VW halts production of ID.3 and Cupra Born hatchbacks due to low demand

Despite the recent restyling, the first-born of the electric ID line of the Volkswagen brand did not become a world-class hit; the capacities reserved for its production turned out to be redundant.

Volkswagen ID.3 debuted in September 2019, the German automaker presented it as an epoch-making model on the level of the Beetle and Golf — they say that the ID.3 should become just as successful and widespread. Alas, he didn’t: the ID.3 entered the market with a long delay (in September 2020) and with a bunch of shortcomings, even the native German press criticized it, sales were squeaky, but VW first explained this by the COVID-19 pandemic, then by the global shortage of microchips.

Updated Volkswagen ID.3 1/2 Updated Volkswagen ID.3 2/2

The shortage of components has already been almost completely eliminated, and the ID.3 is still selling poorly — the spring restyling, which corrected many of the model's shortcomings, did not revive demand. Below is an infographic from the CleanTechnica resource with a rating of the world's most popular plug-in models (electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids) in January-July 2023; it shows that the Volkswagen ID.3 did not make it into the top ten (even if we count only electric model), it sold 63,439 copies worldwide. This figure in itself is quite impressive, but three factories are definitely not needed to achieve it.

The bulk of the Volkswagen ID.3 is today produced at the plant in Zwickau (Germany), and the related Cupra hatchback has been assembled here since 2021 Born. Volkswagen ID.3 is also assembled in small quantities at the so-called Glass Manufactory in Dresden (Germany) and in China at the SAIC-VW joint venture in Anting (part of Shanghai).

Production of the Volkswagen ID.3 at the Zwickau plant 1/5 Production of the Volkswagen ID.3 at the Zwickau plant 2/5 Volkswagen ID.3 production at the Zwickau plant 3/5 Production of the Volkswagen ID.3 at the Zwickau plant 4/5 Production of the Volkswagen ID.3 at the Zwickau plant 5/5

B At the end of last year, VW management promised to start production of the updated ID.3 this year at the head plant in Wolfsburg (Germany), but now it’s clear that they got carried away. Moreover, the German business publication Automobilwoche recently reported that the Glass Manufactory in Dresden will soon be closed — the advanced exhibition plant, launched in 2002 at the instigation of the ambitious Ferdinand Piëch (chief architect of the VW empire), turned out to be too expensive and unprofitable to make cars there.< br />

Today, Reuters, citing a VW representative, reported that production of the Volkswagen ID.3 and Cupra Born at the Zwickau plant will be suspended from October 2 to 13 due to low demand for these models, the plant in Dresden will also not produce the ID.3 during this period. Production of other models in Zwickau will not be interrupted — these are the Volkswagen ID.4, Volkswagen ID.5, Audi Q4 e-tron and Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron crossovers.