While VW and other European automakers are considering closing factories, new competition from China is searching for production sites on the continent. What's going wrong at Europe’s once-proud automakers? Europe's auto industry has fallen on hard times: fewer of their cars are being sold than expected, and their new electric-vehicle (EV) models are struggling to find favor with customers. It's not just the continent's biggest carmaker Volkswagen that is facing potential factory closures — French carmaker Renault and Italy's 14-brand car group Stellantis are also producing significantly more cars than they can sell.
According to business data and research company Bloomberg Intelligence, one in three European factories of carmaking behemoths like BMW , Mercedes, Stellantis, Renault, and Volkswagen is underutilized. In some of their plants, less than half of the vehicles that could theoretically be produced are actually being made. The situation is particularly dire at the Stellantis factory in Mirafiori, Italy, where the fully electric Fiat 500e is built.
Production there fell by more than 60% in the first half of 2024. Meanwhile, even the Belgium plant of premium automaker Audi , which produces the luxury Q8 e-tron model, is facing the risk of being shut down. VW mulls German job cuts, factory closures as sales plummet To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Sales problems are also dampening the mood .