BERLIN (Reuters) - Porsche (DE:VOWG_p) workers have agreed to concessions worth several hundred million euros to secure production of an all-electric sports car at the manufacturer's biggest plant, a spokesman for the company said.
The Volkswagen-owned manufacturer said earlier this month it would spend about 1 billion euros ($1.10 billion) at its base in Zuffenhausen and create more than 1,000 jobs there to build the battery-powered "Mission E" model.
But wage costs of the 13,000 workers employed at Zuffenhausen exceed those at Porsche's other German factory in Leipzig and at a VW plant in Osnabrueck where Porsche's Cayman and Cayenne models are assembled, a source at Porsche said.
"Employer and employees have jointly drawn up measures that have led to the decision of producing the Mission E model at Zuffenhausen," a spokesman for Porsche said on Tuesday, confirming a report by German magazine Automobilwoche.
Cost-cutting measures agreed between workers at Zuffenhausen and management include steps to raise the workweek to 35 hours from 34 and to drop parts of a pay increase between 2016 and 2025, the magazine said. Porsche declined comment on details of the measures.
Porsche's works council did not return calls seeking comment.