BERLIN – Volkswagen Group’s important plant in Wolfsburg is constructing properly beneath 400,000 automobiles a 12 months, lower than half its capability, due to “flat-out chaos” within the provide chain, VW model chief Thomas Schaefer stated.

Talking in a reside interview with native newspapers in Wolfsburg on Tuesday, Schaefer stated suppliers have been cancelling deliveries with one evening’s discover, and chips have been promoting with as much as an 800 p.c worth surcharge.

“It is a disaster for the enterprise,” Schaefer stated. “These are absurd sums,” he added, talking of chip costs on the open market.

In October, VW buying boss Murat Askel stated the automaker is coming into into direct buy agreements to sort out provide chain shortages.

VW is experiencing a shift in energy from a purchaser’s market to 1 the place its was more and more a smaller and fewer highly effective buyer for suppliers in newly necessary areas like software program, Aksel stated on the convention of Automobilwoche, a sister publication of Automotive Information Europe.