Volkswagen will stop taking orders for numerous plug-in hybrid models from Wednesday onwards, the German automaker said, citing chip shortages and supply chain troubles relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Orders for the plug-in hybrid versions of Volkswagen’s Golf, Tiguan, Passat, Arteon, and Touareg models will be halted until further notice and delivery of already placed orders may not happen this year, the company said on Tuesday.
The news, first reported by Handelsblatt, follows Volkswagen’s decision to halt production in Russia and temporarily suspend production at several factories in Germany over the past two weeks.
The carmaker’s main plant in Wolfsburg will be idled from March 14 to March 18, Volkswagen said. Its Zwickau plant, which makes electric vehicles, would also stop producing until March 18.
Its Hanover and Dresden plants as well as two factories in Poland are also affected, the company has said.
Ukraine and Russia are minor sales markets but delivery bottlenecks for components such as wire harnesses produced in Ukraine, as well as rising raw material prices, are hampering output for carmakers across the continent.
(Reporting by Jan Schwartz, Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Zuzanna Szymanska and Louise Heavens)
