VW Shareholder Wants China-Designed Cars Built In Germany: A Symptom, Not A Fix
Lower Saxony premier Olaf Lies, who represents a key Volkswagen shareholder, has told German news agency DPA that VW could stabilise its German plants by building cars there that it currently develops in China. The comments follow reports that the group is weighing four factory closures and up to 100,000 job cuts.
What was announced
Olaf Lies, premier of the German state of Lower Saxony and a representative of a major VW shareholder, told DPA over the weekend that Volkswagen could secure German jobs by relocating production of its China-developed models back home. "If we produced vehicles here that we currently make in China, we could stabilize capacity utilization of our plants," Lies said in the interview.
VW's China cars are cheap because they are built in China. Move them to Germany and you have just imported the cost problem, not solved it.
The comments come after reports on Friday that Volkswagen is considering shutting four German factories and ramping up job cuts to as many as 100,000 roles. The group has publicly said its current business model is unsustainable, citing pressure from Chinese rivals, US import tariffs, and weakening demand in Europe. Lies framed the China-to-Germany production idea as a way to foster innovation and stabilise employment, countering the broader trend of VW shifting manufacturing abroad.
The proposal is not isolated within the group. Porsche is separately reported to be considering bringing Cayenne SUV production back to Germany, a reversal of earlier plans to localise more output outside the country. Neither Volkswagen nor Porsche has confirmed timelines, volumes, or which specific models would move. The shareholder push lands as VW's works council and management negotiate the deepest restructuring the company has faced in decades, with German plant utilisation running well below capacity across multiple sites.
The Car Jury verdict
This idea sounds neat in a press soundbite and falls apart on a spreadsheet. VW's China-developed cars exist because they are cheap, fast to engineer, and tuned to local tastes. Build them in Wolfsburg on German labour rates and the cost advantage that justifies their existence evaporates. The problem in Europe is not where the cars are made, it is that VW's core lineup feels expensive next to BYD and even its own Skoda cousins.
For Indian buyers this matters more than it looks. As Rachit Hirani of MotorOctane notes, Skoda and Volkswagen still land within Rs 15-20 lakh here, and the Taigun and Virtus remain genuinely good cars. A distracted, cost-cutting parent is the real risk to that lineup, not a German factory plan.
