Volkswagen has canceled extra weekend and night shifts for September at its Wolfsburg plant, where it had planned to increase combustion-car production. For the first time, German customers are ordering more pure electric vehicles than petrol or diesel cars.
This is more than a symbolic change. Wolfsburg, long the center of Volkswagen’s combustion-car output, is set to finish 2026 with about 580,000 vehicles built. That’s down from the 600,000-plus originally planned and only slightly above last year’s 577,444 units. Martin Sander, Volkswagen’s head of sales, points to rising fuel prices, better charging networks and cheaper entry-level EVs as the basic drivers. Buyers are rethinking what they want. Fewer combustion-car orders mean less production. German and international auto outlets describe this as a major turning point for Volkswagen and the European market.
As Wolfsburg slows, Spain is picking up speed. Four new electric models built in Spain have already drawn over 100,000 pre-orders, German press reports. Martorell builds the ID. Polo and CUPRA Raval; Landaben, in Navarra, builds the ID. Cross and Škoda Epiq. The Spanish-built models are reaching customers in 34 countries. The ID. Polo alone has topped 40,000 orders since April. The whole range is sold out, and waits for custom builds now stretch to at least ten months.
Production of the ID. Cross, a compact SUV, started in July at Landaben. In Germany, it starts at €27,995. Even before mass production began, 10,000 orders were in. The Navarra plant now turns out about 350 electric vehicles a day. By year’s end, it aims to more than double that pace, with 24,300 ID. Cross units set for September through December. The Epiq and CUPRA Raval are seeing similar demand.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s basic German electric plants in Emden and Zwickau are adding at least two extra shifts, just weeks after questions were raised about their long-term future. These factories build first-generation MEB models, including the ID.3, ID.4 and ID.7. They are now running above earlier forecasts to keep up with demand. Industry sources cited by Electrive and Focus say the production shift signals a clear move from combustion to electric vehicles within the group.
The company’s Future Plan 2030, approved by the supervisory board on September 3, lays out the problem: Volkswagen’s European factories can build over 500,000 more cars a year than the market wants. The plan also says that from 2031 to 2034, Volkswagen can’t guarantee steady work for Emden, Zwickau, Hannover and Neckarsulm. The group has until June 2027 to draw up a new industrial plan for Europe. A global workforce cut of about 50,000 jobs is on the table.
Spain is now the base for affordable electric growth. The next wave of larger EVs will use the SSP platform, with models such as the ID. Touareg expected in 2029. Wolfsburg has already cut its assembly lines from four to two. It will build the electric Golf, while production of the combustion Golf moves to Mexico.
The figures point to a deeper problem: Volkswagen makes less money on each electric car than on a similar combustion model. The canceled Wolfsburg shifts affect the Golf and Tiguan, two of the group’s top earners. The new shifts are for small EVs, where every euro of cost matters. That is the core tension in the Future Plan 2030, which targets a 9% operating margin by the end of the decade.
In Spain, the ID. Polo starts at €25,990 with a 37 kWh LFP battery, slightly above the €24,995 Trend trim in Germany. With waits of ten months for custom orders, buyers are advised to check dealerships for pre-assigned or in-stock cars if they want to skip the line.
Volkswagen has long said European buyers would switch to EVs once a genuine option reached Polo-level prices. Current order books show demand has arrived faster than the company expected. The challenge now is to build these cars quickly enough and make money doing it, a task falling increasingly to Martorell and Landaben rather than Wolfsburg.
As the industry shifts, the fight over regulation and competitiveness is heating up. Renault’s recent push for a ten-year freeze on new EU car rules, as reported earlier, reflects the pressure on European automakers to keep up amid changing policies and market swings.
Volkswagen’s pullback from combustion-car expansion in Germany goes beyond a reaction to sales data. It signals that affordable electric cars are arriving sooner than expected. The group is shifting production and considering job cuts as it bets on Spanish plants, while still facing the challenge of making the transition profitable.
