Workers at VW’s Hanover plant pining for new product

Workers at Volkswagen’s plant in Hanover, Germany, are urging the automaker to add at least one new vehicle to the production mix in order to safeguard the facility from closure.

The Hanover plant currently builds the VW T5 multivan and the Amarok pickup, and also welds and paints bodies for Porsche’s Panamera sedan. However, with demand slipping for commercial vehicles in Europe, the plant is now running at just 70 percent of capacity.

Making matters worse, it appears as though Porsche could shift all production of its next-generation Panamera to its factory in Leipzig, leaving the Hanover plant running well below ideal levels.

“Porsche may well want the Panamera in Leipzig. We can imagine that too pretty well, but only if there is adequate compensation,” Thomas Zwiebler, head of the Hanover plant’s works council, told Reuters.

“We need a second volume model besides the T5,” he added.

Workers at the Hanover plant have been pushing for production of the upcoming Crafter van, but capacity concerns have VW considering that product for a new site in Poland. The Crafter is currently made for VW by Daimler.

The Hanover plant, which employs 14,000, cranks about 150,000 T5 vans per year, plus another 35,000 Amaroks. The factory also handles the bodies for about 20,000 Panameras.

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