The Reason These Sausages Have A Volkswagen Factory Part Number
Part numbers and serial numbers are fairly typical on machinery components produced in major factories, and the car parts manufactured by Volkswagen are no different in that regard. What you might not have thought came with a part number, though, is their sausages. Yes, sausages. According to Irish Times, the automobile company decided to take matters into their own hands due to the extreme popularity of wurst amongst the workers at their facility in Wolfsburg, Germany.
Volkswagen employed 30 people to make sausage at the factory to serve at the factory canteen. The team would receive pork from local farms and turn it directly into the factory workers' meals. Because the food item was just as crucial as any steering wheel or exhaust pipe, the wurst was given its own identity as Volkswagen Part No. 199 398 500 A. Unfortunately for the sausage team and the wurst-loving Volkswagen workers, the part number is being retired as VW has come to an environmental fork in the road.
Volkswagen will stop making sausage
Volkswagen has announced that it will phase out its sausage production. Part No. 199 389 500 A will be discontinued, but it was not due to low popularity. Jalopnik reports the reason for dissembling the currywurst cult has to do with the amount of carbon emissions related to producing meat products. While some car companies may confront the global climate crisis by producing electric cars, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess has decided to take sausage off the canteen menu and plans to discontinue all meat production in the Wolfsburg factory by 2025 in order to provide more climate-friendly, plant-based meals for its workers. As it turns out, not everyone has been happy about the initiative.
Apparently, it wasn't the sausage union that took up arms against the move. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder wasn't too keen on the decision, stating, "Vegetarian diet is good, I do it myself in phases," while in the same stroke of the keyboard arguing that "Currywurst with fries is one of the power bars of the skilled worker in production. It should stay that way." Let's just hope Beetles don't come off the menu too.