Volkswagen faces manufacturing challenges amid financial troubles Volkswagen is grappling with mounting financial troubles, signalling a worsening situation in its global manufacturing operations. With two profit warnings in three months, the automotive giant faces falling EV sales, factory underutilisation, and tariff threats from China. Ian Henry
Volkswagen announces new affordable European EV Volkswagen Group has announced that it will make all-electric entry-level mobility widespread across Europe, with affordable EVs made in the continent, for the European market. Megan Kelly
How Mercedes-Benz and Seat are transforming their plants Michael Bauer, regional head of production at Mercedes-Benz and Jose Arreche, plant manager at Seat emphasised the importance of data and digitalisation in the transformation of their plants at the Automobil Produktion Kongress 2024, but stressed the evolving role that people will play in production. Timo Gilgen
Balancing digitalisation with production output The focus of the Automobil Produktion Kongress 2024 was on sustainable, efficient and digital production methods. Industry experts from car manufacturers and suppliers discussed the future of smart production. Werner Beutnagel
The changing shape of Europe’s automotive production operations European vehicle manufacturing is having to adapt to weakening EV demand and increasing competition. This means revising production volumes and rethinking the ICE-EV balance in the short term. Ian Henry
Green Revolution: How renewable energy is fuelling sustainable automotive manufacturing Adopting renewable energy in automotive production requires a comprehensive strategy, integrating solar, wind, biogas and electric solutions to drive sustainability and mitigate environmental impact effectively. OEMs, strategies and technologies are converging on different approaches to achieve sustainability goals across regions. Here are some notweworthy projects to keep an eye on… Ilkhan Ozsevim
AMS Winter 2023/24 – BMW’s battery boost Our Winter digital edition takes an in-depth look at how OEMs are getting to grips with developing and manufacturing new electric vehicles and powertrains AMS
VW to make Spain an electric vehicle hub The VW Group is building new battery production capacities in Valencia and at the Seat headquarters in Martorell to support further electric vehicle production in the region Werner Beutnagel Nick Holt
AMS Summer 2023 – JLR goes electric In our AMS Summer digital edition, we have features on JLR’s plans to transform its end-to-end industrial system, ready for new electric models, Seat’s technical upgrades to production operations and upskilling the workforce and insights into developments at Audi’s Neckarsulm plant, and more. AMS
Seat: Digital tools, shopfloor innovations and multi-brand manufacturing After stints at Volkswagen in Portugal and Spain, Markus Haupt has returned to his professional roots in Barcelona. As the board member in charge of production and logistics, he now has the fortunes of Seat’s manufacturing operations in his hands. Here, he talks about the special aspects of the Iberian Peninsula, good ideas from the shop floor, and the logistical challenges of the recent past Pascal Nagel
Smart Factory Special Edition - Automobil Produktion Read about the latest developments in digital twins, predictive maintenance and Industry 4.0 featuring SEAT’s Markus Haupt, Audi and more from AMS sister publication Automobil Produktion in this special edition for the Hannover Messe AMS
China: European, US and Japanese Vehicle Manufacturers rebalance production and supply chains AMS looks at the changing role of the Chinese operations of European and other long established brands’ operations in China and their changing roles in the global auto sector Ian Henry
Seat’s Martorell site celebrates 30th anniversary The Martorell, Spain, factory has built more than 12m units of 45 car models in the past 30 years Rebecca Morley
Volkswagen launches battery cell-making company PowerCo PowerCo could produce enough cells for 3m electric vehicles a year by 2030 across six ‘standardised’ European gigafactories. Peter Murphy
EV battery supply chains on the move As electric vehicles become serious business for OEMs, they are reassessing their battery supply and manufacturing bases, putting their eggs in multiple baskets and taking more control of the process. Illya Verpraet Daniel Harrison
Carmakers pledge to switch to all-electric vehicles The wave of electrification is slowly turning into a tsunami, in Europe at least. Illya Verpraet takes a look at some of the big manufacturing plans in 2021 Illya Verpraet
SEAT restart plan includes huge programme of Covid-19 testing A planned production restart for Martorell from 27 April will be backed by an ambitious testing programme covering thousands of SEAT workers Gareth Price
AMS on Africa: Part 2 – Algeria thinks big Algeria has ambitions to be the Africa’s next major automotive manufacturing hub and the OEMs are lining up to make it happen Ian Henry
Success for Seat Spain’s biggest exporter has turned its finances around and looks to have a bright future Ian Henry
Interview: Luca de Meo, CEO, SEAT Seat has a long history of making affordable and reliable cars, but how will the company continue to do so while also electrifying its line up? Michael Nash sits down with Luca de Meo to find out Michael Nash
