Saxon Minister of Economics, Dirk Panter (SPD), is convinced that Volkswagen can only secure a favorable future with the factory in Zwickau-Mosel. Panter told the specialist news service “Tagesspiegel Background” that the Zwickau site, along with other VW locations in Saxony, has already demonstrated their critical importance to the company. He noted that the Zwickau plant provided development assistance across the entire group, particularly in the field of electric mobility, and highlighted the proven productivity and cost reductions already implemented there.
The Minister stated that the agreed-upon factory cost reductions in Zwickau were achieved in 2025, and the site is currently well on track to meet its defined objectives for 2026. Furthermore, he stressed that Zwickau does not need to be compared unfavorably against Eastern European locations when reviewing costs and productivity.
VW’s factory in Bratislava is often used as a benchmark for comparison. While Panter conceded that the Slovakian site leads in terms of sheer vehicle production costs, he pointed out that when evaluating production on a comparable basis-including external service providers-Zwickau’s pure labor productivity is significantly higher than Bratislava’s. “Zwickau is 30 per cent more productive than Germany’s second-best vehicle production plant,” the Minister stated.
In the coming week, VW CEO Oliver Blume will visit the Zwickau plant to address the factory workforce during a general meeting. Panter is expecting that the VW board will make a rational decision following what he describes as a highly emotional discussion. Blume had recently spoken about finding “smarter solutions” rather than resorting to plant closures.
