A major IT malfunction paralyzed activity at several Volkswagen factories in Germany on Wednesday September 27.
The group found itself in a rather delicate position, since this computer incident caused the shutdown of production in most of its factories. A major problem which could have had repercussions on other brands in the group, such as Porsche or Audi. While the brand is very optimistic about the sale of its electric vehicles, this type of event is a reminder of how important computer systems have become in the automotive industry.
A sudden and massive disruption
This outage occurred on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. and the repercussions were very rapid. The company did not take too long to communicate about the disruption and the resolution of the problem which took place a little later that night. She subsequently assured that the disturbance had been resolved, without however dwelling too much on the origins of it.
We will therefore certainly never know precisely what really happened. Volkswagen, which recently opened orders for its ID.7, simply said it was unlikely to come from an external attack. No additional information on potential financial losses. Nothing more regarding the repercussions on other brands that this failure could have caused. One of the group’s spokespersons simply declared: VW brand factories are at a standstill in Germany “. An official reaction faithful to the adage, for which discretion is above all the mother of safety.
Consequences of the event
The factories concerned were also major sites of the firm: factories in Dresden, Osnabrueck, Emden, Hannover, Zwickau and Wolfsburg. Other establishments, dedicated to the manufacture of spare parts, were also affected: Salzgitter, Kassel, Chemnitz and Braunschweig. In addition to the interruption of production lines (which is already heavily penalizing for Volkswagen), this small “accident” caused the group’s shares to fall sharply by 1.2%.
The German transport minister commented by explaining that “ digital infrastructure is essential », and called for strengthening the IT protection of large German companies. Proof, if any were needed, that we can be the most important car manufacturer in Europe, but that a technical mishap is always possible.
Sources: Reuters, BFMTV
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