Automotive industry | VW wants to make money by dismantling cars in Zwickau

What's left of the car: A VW Zwickau employee dismantles the steering wheel from a disused vehicle Photo: dpa/Hendrik Schmidt In automobile plants like Volkswagen's in Zwickau, many individual parts are usually made into a whole: bodies, engines, headlights, steering wheels and countless other components are assembled along a production line to form complete cars. In Hall 23 of the West Saxony plant, VW is now essentially in reverse gear. Here, complete vehicles roll onto a regular line and are further dismantled: oil and coolant are drained, doors and headlights are unscrewed, airbags are disposed of, cables are cut out, and the engine and transmission are dismantled. In the end, many individual pieces remain. Here, says VW board member Thomas Schäfer, something completely new is happening for the group: "We no longer just assemble cars, but also take them apart."

When it comes to dismantling old cars, many people think of scrap yards where dented bodies are piled up amid shimmering puddles of oil, or, better yet, of workshops where resourceful mechanics salvage usable parts from otherwise worn-out cars. What is taking place in Hall 23 in Zwickau is something completely different, emphasizes Schäfer. Here the group is entering the circular economy on a first serial dismantling line in order to create “real value creation” by dismantling and recycling cars in the future. The new business area will be “a crucial piece of the puzzle” for the VW brand and the entire group in the future.

Andreas Warling, who is responsible for the new business line as “Head of Circular Economy” in the group, explains why this is the case. More than four million cars are retired in the EU every year. While they are no longer needed as a whole, they usually still contain many functional components and also valuable materials: steel, aluminum, plastics. “These are future sources of raw materials,” says Warling. Using them is a requirement of economic and ecological reason. “Whoever can manage the cycle most efficiently,” says Warling, “will have a competitive advantage in the future.”

In addition, significantly increased recycling is also being demanded by politicians. From 2032, says Warling, according to EU guidelines, every new car must contain around ten kilograms of plastic from old cars. In the future, the manager is confident that more and more material for new cars will come from disused old ones. "This is just the beginning."

What is taking place in Hall 23 at VW in Zwickau is also a beginning. While assembly lines in modern car factories are highly technical and full of robots, the work processes here are similar to those in a factory. First of all, they are relying on “many low-cost solutions,” admits Danny Auerswald, the managing director of VW Sachsen. The employees have already developed many ideas on how the processes could be professionalized. They are working on pushing the “junkyard image” out of people’s minds.

The old cars are currently being dismantled by hand after a “health check” and sorted into recycled material and usable components. The latter are further used as “used original parts”, for which employees photograph them, pack them by hand and then send them to workshops. The demand is considerable, emphasizes VW sales expert Markus Engelmann. Such parts allow “fair-value repairs” on vehicles that are four years old and older, thereby making it possible to “retain customers’ loyalty to VW for longer.”

How economical the Zwickau dismantling line is, which went from pilot to series operation this Wednesday a few months ahead of schedule, remains to be seen; The company does not provide any figures. The 100 employees working there are expected to dismantle 4,100 old cars in two shifts next year. In a few years there could be 15,000 cars that would provide work for 1,000 VW workers.

This is important not least because, according to management, the assembly lines in the Zwickau factory will no longer be used to capacity in the future. As part of the latest, drastic restructuring plans for the group, there is even talk of closing the Saxon factory in 2031; 8,000 jobs at VW and tens of thousands at suppliers are at risk. The hope of being able to avert this also rests on expanding Zwickau into a group-wide competence center for the circular economy, which was decided in 2024 as part of collective bargaining.

The workforce as well as the Saxon state politicians hope that the new business area can contribute to securing the location. The investments at VW, which are estimated at 90 million euros, are being supported with up to 10.7 million euros in state funding, said Economics Minister Dirk Panter (SPD). At the same time, he emphasized that it should only be about “expanding the location”: “The mainstay must remain vehicle production.” Mike Rösler, the deputy head of the works council, also agrees with this. Zwickau is “a plant that has a 120-year tradition of producing vehicles, and it should stay that way.” The rule must remain that a whole is created from many individual parts - and only for one part should it work the other way around.

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