Berlin - German car giants Volkswagen and BMW said on Tuesday that they would temporarily halt production at some plants as the crisis in Ukraine led to shortages of key components.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine had "made the situation more difficult for our Ukraine-based suppliers, leading to shortages," a VW group spokesman said in a statement. Production at Volkswagen's central plant in Wolfsburg in Germany would be "limited" next week as a result of the sanctions.
In the following week, vehicles at the plant "will not be able to be finished as it stands", the group said, leading to a complete stop.
BMW said that "due to the supply bottlenecks, there will be interruptions in production", without specifying which plants in Germany would be idled.
Production at Volkswagen's plants in Zwickau, the group's biggest electric car production site in eastern Germany, had already been suspended between Monday and Thursday this week.
Volkswagen's factory in Hanover and its component production sites would also be affected by shortages, the group said, adding that further "adjustments to production cannot be ruled out".
The stoppages are the latest blow to carmakers, which have already had to contend with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and a worldwide shortage of semiconductors in recent months.
Limited supplies of chips, a crucial component in both conventional and electric vehicles, have led to stop-start production at a number of German car plants.
Earlier in the day Volkswagen said it would "temporarily" cease deliveries of its vehicles to vendors in Russia, but that they would restart "once the impact of sanctions from the European Union and the United States is clear".
BMW for its part said it was suspending local production in Russia and exports to the Russian market because of the "current geopolitical situation".
Shares in the VW Group fell by more than seven percent on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, while BMW ended the day almost five percent lower.
AFP