Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) sees "no end date" for car production at the VW plant in Emden when the ID.Tiguan is launched. Emden is one of four German plants whose continued occupancy VW cannot guarantee from 2031.
There will only be a new model from 2031 if Emden achieves its factory cost targets. According to Handelsblatt information, the plant missed the targets in 2025, but is now well on track. In the future, an average price of 3,000 euros per vehicle will apply across Europe.
If Audi relocates the construction of the Q7 and Q9 SUVs from Bratislava to a new US plant in Georgia, capacity will be freed up there. The Bratislava plant is considered a competitor to Emden due to low labor costs.
Dusseldorf. Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) spoke out in favor of maintaining the Volkswagen plant in Emden at the start of series production of the electric SUV ID.Tiguan. There is “no end date for the production of cars in Emden,” said Lies on Thursday at the factory in East Frisia. The site, with around 8,000 employees, is one of four German group plants whose future is open as a result of VW's savings program.
Lies represents Lower Saxony on the VW supervisory board. The state holds 20 percent of the voting rights. The SPD politician sits in the state parliament for the Friesland constituency. The next state election will take place on September 26, 2027. Volkswagen wants to present a concept for its European plants by the end of June 2027. The group estimates its overcapacity in Europe alone at 500,000 vehicles and has to reallocate or close plants to accommodate this.
In September, Volkswagen's Group Supervisory Board, which included Lies and his deputy Julia Willie Hamburg (Greens), approved a comprehensive savings program by the board ("Group Target Picture"). According to its own information, the group cannot guarantee competitive subsequent occupancy for Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and the Audi Neckarsulm plant from 2031 to 2034. VW is also examining other possible uses for the four locations.
For Emden, 2031 is the crucial year. According to IG Metall, in the 2024 collective bargaining agreement, Volkswagen promised the plant a new model from then on, provided the location achieved its factory cost targets.
The East Frisian SPD member of the Bundestag, Johann Saathoff, estimated how big the gap was after the collective bargaining agreement. Accordingly, the factory costs for the ID.7 were 8,200 euros per vehicle at the time and should fall to around 4,000 euros within two years.
According to information from the Handelsblatt, Emden missed the targets for utilization and efficiency in 2025, but the plant is now well on track. However, the bar for factory costs is now being raised even further. Across Europe, the average mark of 3,000 euros will soon be considered crucial. It is unclear how close the plant is to its new cost target agreement.
The ID.Tiguan is scheduled to replace the VW electric models ID.4 and ID.5 at the beginning of 2027. Volkswagen relies on the name of its best-selling model worldwide. For Emden, it depends on how many buyers choose the electric version. Higher quantities would reduce the fixed costs per vehicle. According to VW, it has invested more than one billion euros in the location. Since the end of 2024, Emden has only been building electric cars. Last year the factory's output was almost 150,000 cars.
Additional pressure for the location in East Frisia could come from America – namely from the premium subsidiary Audi. The Ingolstadt-based company is known to be planning a new plant in the US state of Georgia. According to Handelsblatt information from corporate circles, the large Audi SUVs Q7 and Q9, which are currently being built in Bratislava, could be produced there. Production in the new US factory could start in the early 2030s.
If Audi were to shift quantities from Slovakia to America, a decision would have to be made as to how the group would use the freed-up capacity. Bratislava is a multi-brand plant but runs under the Volkswagen flag. Due to its low labor costs, it is considered a competitor to Emden when it comes to awarding new models, where the ID.Tiguan and the electric ID.7 are also built as electric sedans and station wagons.
On November 24th, Emden will once again be the focus of VW. Then negotiations between Volkswagen and IG Metall begin there. The union demands that VW withdraw its collective bargaining agreements and keep the commitments for the plants agreed in 2024.
