The Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles factory in Hanover (Germany) has had to stop the production of ID. Buzz vans, which began a matter of weeks ago. According to local radio and television NDR, the manufacturer has been forced to stop manufacturing more units until quality problems with the battery supplier are resolved.
Problems in the supplier’s quality control were confirmed on Thursday, and the problem is serious enough to stop production and also deliveries of units that had already been manufactured. According to NDR, 500 units of Volkswagen ID. Buzz has been put on hold and your customers won’t be able to enjoy them when they expected.
Production has been rescheduled for early July, but we don’t know what corrective action will be taken. It may be something as simple as checking all vehicle units and their batteries with electronic diagnostics or replacing faulty modules or modules that have not been properly tested. It may only be a week.
Batteries with problems are below design specifications, including voltage drops, thus not achieving expected autonomy and performance, and would affect their useful life. The problem does not affect other vehicles with the MEB platform, since they come from another supplier. There are also no more Volkswagen electric models affected by this issue.
No unit has reached customers, so the problem has been detected in time. The batteries available at commercial launch have a gross capacity of 81 kWh and a net capacity of 77 kWh. They support high-power recharging in both directions (V2X), although the Plug&Charge system has not yet been implemented.
Serial production began earlier this month, initially at a leisurely pace of 45 units per day, although the pace may be accelerated to 140 units per day by the end of the year. At that rate, 130,000 ID. Buzz can be manufactured in Hanover, as long as you don’t have to sit idly by due to problems with a supplier.
