Volkswagen production resumes after IT outage

BERLIN, Germany — German auto giant Volkswagen said Thursday that a major IT malfunction that brought production to a standstill at several German factories had been resolved overnight.

The IT problems that started on Wednesday disrupted Volkswagen's own-brand plants across Germany, including at the group's Wolfsburg headquarters. Other brands of the VW group were also affected.

"The IT infrastructure problems in the Volkswagen network were resolved during the course of the night," VW said in a statement.

"The global production network is up and running, and production is expected to proceed as planned."

There were no indications to suggest that the IT outage was caused "by external influences", VW added.

The outage began around midday on Wednesday, and ended up shutting down the Wolfsburg factory, VW's largest, and sites in Emden, Zwickau, Osnabruck and Dresden.

A spokesman said factories making other VW brands were also affected, with press reports citing Audi and Porsche sites.

The Handelsblatt financial daily called it "one of the worst IT crises" in the automaker's history, saying production had also been disrupted at sites in China and the United States, and at some parts factories in Germany.

Last month, Japanese rival Toyota was also forced to halt production at all of its factories in Japan because of a computer system malfunction.

The one-day stoppage on August 29 at Toyota's 14 domestic plants happened after servers that process parts orders broke down following maintenance.

The incident was not caused by a cyberattack, Toyota said.