Germany Is Preparing For A Significant Electric Vehicle Shock

Latest Update- 05/01/2023

At the Volkswagen plant in Zwickau Dirk Kosbad's position required him to manually build the Trabant which served as East Germany's icon. now more than 30 years later he works as a shift supervisor at the same plant keeping an eye on orange robots flying fast around a silver vehicle frame shooting micro lighting bolts here and welding the multiple aspects that will soon cover a large rectangular battery. The foundation for Volkswagen's move to electric mobility is Zwickau.

Several nations are considering banning the sale of automobiles using internal combustion engines including the phase-out for Norway is planned for 2025 the UK for 2030 and the 27 member states of the European Union for 2035. The powerful automobile sector in Europe which supports 3.7 million manufacturing jobs is locked in the eye of a perfect storm. Nothing less than a revolution is promised by digitization, automation, and the public's knowledge of the severity of the climate crisis. Some individuals view this as an opportunity. others expecting the worst have been suggesting that Europe's hubs for automobile production would transform into a network of the little Detroit.

Automobile makers have recently been forced to spend billions of euros on the creation of greener vehicles. The change has already happened in Zwickau. Volkswagen fully restored the manufacturing line and retrained its 8,500 on-site workers to make electric vehicles only beginning in 2019. Kosbad 57 admits that at first, we were rather afraid. Nobody could have expected it would be a success story.

Everyone in the room was skeptical. Volkswagen's risk looks to have paid off though as demand for electric cars has exploded and new car registrations in Germany have grown significantly in the past two years—nearly doubling from 2018 to 2019 and more than tripling from 2019 to 2020. Despite only making up a small percentage of Germany's 48 million total vehicles the number of electric vehicle registrations grew massively in the first four months of 2021 twice that of all of 2020.

Last Updated- 15/09/2021

Automobile manufacturers have been obliged to invest billions of dollars in the creation of more eco-friendly vehicles in recent years. the shift has already taken place in Zwickau. Beginning in 2019, Volkswagen retrained its 8,500 on-site staff and redesigned the whole manufacturing line to focus solely on electric vehicles. Volkswagen's gamble looks to have paid off new car registrations in Germany nearly doubled from 2018 to 2019 and more than tripled from 2019 to 2020, indicating that demand for electric vehicles has surged. While the 365,000 electric cars registered are a tiny fraction of Germany's total 48 million, the rise is exponential in the first four months of 2021.

The number of electric vehicle registrations was three times that of the entire year of 2020. Volkswagen, Germany's largest automobile manufacturer is now only second to Tesla in global electric vehicle sales. Around 10,000 small and medium-sized part suppliers make up the backbone of Europe's automotive sector with 1,200 of them in Germany alone. With yearly sales of about €300 billion, automobiles are Germany's most significant export. The automobile sector employs about 5% of all workers in the United States.