Audi temporarily halts e-tron production in Brussels

Audi for some time completely stops the production of e-tron in Brussels due to supply chain problems. The company has confirmed this information and doesn't know for what period of time the production will be stopped.

Factory representatives didn't want to indicate which parts for the production of the electric SUV were lacking, and which supplier was responsible for this. However, he emphasized that the problem had nothing to do with the coronavirus epidemic in China.

Last year, shortly after the start of mass production, according to reports from Belgium, the automaker reduced its planned car production due to a lack of batteries.

To date, Audi has produced 20 cars per hour in Brussels; the planned increase to 24 cars per hour has already been delayed. At the end of January, as we reported earlier, the company officially announced that in the 1Q 2020, 4,100 - 5,700 less electric vehicles will be produced, because the manufacturer is experiencing problems with suppliers of parts.

In this regard, the plant worked only 6 hours a day instead of the prescribed eight. Due to these problems, Audi had to lay off about 145 workers. According to the company representative, the delay in deliveries at that moment could be from 2 to 6-7 months.

The Belgian news agency Belga reported that as a reason, the company pointed out the difficulties of the supplier of spare parts needed to install batteries in electric SUVs. The Belgian newspaper L'Echo claimed that it was probably about the problem with the supplier of LG Chem. But this has not been officially confirmed.

Source: Charge Point

Having appreciated the big picture, we see that a number of manufacturers of electric cars are experiencing problems with the production of their environmentally friendly vehicles. According to some reports, Mercedes has limited production of EQC or delayed launch in North America due to lack of batteries, but the campaign refutes this information.

And earlier this month, The Sunday Times announced that the Jaguar I-Pace has a problem: it has enough batteries. Jaguar has stopped production of SUVs at its factory in Graz, Austria, for a week starting February 10, due to a shortage of lithium-ion batteries. I-Pace batteries are supplied by the South Korean electronic giant LG Chem, which manufactures them at a factory in Wroclaw, Poland.

These problems reflect the struggle of automakers to meet the growing demand for electric cars and reduce emissions, relying on fragile supply chains. All the major automakers who so hoped their product would become Tesla’s killer ran into a problem.

In a situation of increased demand, new automakers will certainly experience a lack of rechargeable batteries for their electric vehicles. The only sure way for them is to follow Tesla’s example and invest huge amounts of money in R&D, and perhaps in a few years they will succeed and they will be able to freely produce batteries in quantities that satisfy their needs.

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Featured image:  Roadshow