Porsche has decided to withdraw from a manufacturing agreement with the Volkswagen group. According to the agreement that had been reached by the two companies, the VW group’s light commercial vehicle division was to produce the new 100% electric flagship of the Zuffenhausen brand at its German plant in Hanover, together with the Audi and Bentley branded sister models. These are the three luxury electric that should have been born from the project Artemis Audi, which is creating new technologies for highly automated electric cars that Porsche doesn’t believe it needs.
For this Porsche has chosen to withdraw from the agreement, a decision that will involve the payment of approximately 100 million euros by the German brand in the coffers of Volkswagen’s light commercial vehicle division. On the other hand, Porsche will be able to build its future battery-powered flagship, internally known under the code name K1, in the Leipzig plant, also in Germany: the start of production works on the car has been set for 2026, one year after which it was decided whether production was confirmed in Hanover. As mentioned, the car will not be based on the Artemis project developed by Audi, but will be based on architecture Premium Platform Electric jointly made by Porsche and the brand with the four rings. Recall that the platform was further developed by the Zuffenhausen house to support the upcoming 100% electric version of the Macan SUV and the Panamera coupe, scheduled for 2024 or 2025.
The original agreement stipulated that the Hanover plant would build 25,000 of the future Porsche-branded electric flagship each year, a figure that Volkswagen’s light commercial vehicle division had included in its financial planning to ensure the safety of work in the plant until 2029. For this reason, too, the works council speaks out of “disappointment” with the decision taken by Porsche: even if the payment of 100 million euros by Porsche will allow at VW Commercial Vehicles in Hannover of replace lost production with other models, the future of the workers employed at the site is no longer as secure as it was before.
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