The company explained that an increase in demand for petrol engines had been impacting on the engine manufacturers as the components for diesel engines and petrol ones were different and they were having difficulty adapting to a sudden change in demand.

There are sub-suppliers who cannot keep up with the increased demand needed for the plants, Autoeuropa said.

The Volkswagen car plant in Palmela expects to produce about 240,000 vehicles this year, most of which are the new T-Roc model.