Volkswagen, Europe’s premier carmaker, faced a significant setback on Wednesday as a major IT outage disrupted production at its namesake brand in Germany. The impact of this outage reverberated across the entire Volkswagen Group, affecting not only Volkswagen but also its subsidiary brands, including Porsche AG and Audi.
A spokesperson for Audi confirmed that production within the division had been adversely affected, although the precise extent of the disruption was still under assessment. Porsche AG did not offer an immediate comment on the situation.
This IT disruption adds to the challenges already faced by Volkswagen, particularly at its Zwickau plant, which focuses on the production of all-electric vehicles. The muted demand for battery-powered vehicles has prompted discussions about altering the plant’s long-standing three-shift system.
Volkswagen reported that the issue stemmed from an unspecified “IT malfunction of network components” at its Wolfsburg site in Germany, which serves as the company’s global headquarters.
The repercussions of the IT outage extended beyond Wolfsburg, affecting various German sites, including Emden, Osnabrueck, Hanover, Dresden, and Zwickau. Furthermore, component factories in Braunschweig, Kassel, Chemnitz, and Salzgitter were also impacted.
The group stated, “The fault has been present since 12:30 p.m. (CET) and is currently being analysed. There are implications for vehicle-producing plants.” It emphasized that, based on initial assessments, an external cyberattack was an unlikely cause of the system malfunction. Volkswagen affirmed that resolving the issue was of paramount importance and that efforts to rectify the problem were well underway.
The IT outage underscores the vulnerability of modern manufacturing processes to digital disruptions and serves as a reminder of the critical role technology plays in the automotive industry.
