Inside VW's Scramble To 'duplicate' Ukrainian Factories

Wolfsburg, Germany, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Mar, 2022 ) :With the war in Ukraine halting deliveries of crucial car parts, Volkswagen and its suppliers are scrambling to find solutions abroad, while trying to reassure Ukrainians they aren't abandoning the country.

Like other carmakers, German giant VW has had to trim production ever since Russia's invasion last month forced many Ukrainian factories to close, holding up supplies of car components across Europe.

It is the latest upset to an industry already battered by two years of computer chip shortages and other pandemic-related supply chain disruptions.

"We are keeping our suppliers in Ukraine," Murat Aksel, VW's board member for purchasing, told reporters at the group's Wolfsburg headquarters in northern Germany.

But "we are currently creating capacities outside Ukraine because no one knows if the war will spread west or how long it will last.

" As well as manufacturing a range of car parts, Ukraine is one of Europe's biggest suppliers of automotive wire harnesses.

A wiring harness groups together the maze of cables running through every car and is known as the vehicle's central nervous system.

In Wolfsburg, housed in the VIP section of the Volkswagen Arena stadium, a 150-strong task force of VW experts and representatives from Ukraine's auto parts industry is working feverishly to keep supply lines flowing.

Solutions range from sourcing replacements for certain parts or switching suppliers where possible, to the radical option of creating "duplicates" of entire factories.

The most likely destinations for these mirror sites are countries in eastern Europe or the Maghreb, where costs tend to be lower and where the companies can repurpose or expand existing factories.