Zwickau has been seen as the cradle of the automotive industry in Saxony for 115 years. Volkswagen is developing this location into Europe’s largest e-mobility competence center by 2021. A chronicle.
- On May 10, 1904, automotive engineer August Horch registered his first company in Zwickau, A. Horch & Cie. Motorenwerke AG. This started an almost unparalleled tradition of automobile production in Zwickau and the region for 115 years and more.
- In 1909, August Horch established his second automobile company, Audi Automobilwerke, in Zwickau (“Audi” being the Latin equivalent of “Horch”, which means “listen” in German) and launched his first Audi on the market in 1910. The two companies, A. Horch & Cie. Motorenwerke AG and Audi Automobilwerke GmbH, later became part of Auto Union AG and eventually AUDI AG. Audi has formed part of the Volkswagen Group since 1965.
- On November 7, 1957, VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau (formerly Auto Union AG) started production of the Trabant P50. More than 3 million units were produced before production was discontinued in April 1991.
- Following German reunification, Volkswagen returned to the region in 1990 with the establishment of Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH. In the newly constructed assembly halls of the former Sachsenring in Mosel, the Trabant and the first Volkswagen Polo cars produced at the plant rolled off the assembly lines at the same time.
- On September 26, 1990, the foundation stone for a new automobile plant designed for the production of the Volkswagen Golf was laid in the presence of Federal Chancellor. Dr. Helmut Kohl und Prof. Carl Hahn, the Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Initially, Volkswagen invested
DM 4 billion in the plant. The first Golf from the Mosel plant was completed on February 15, 1991. - In February 1994, the Golf CitySTROMer made its debut. This was the first
all-electric Golf, which was built here as the first series model of the Group in the 1990s. The reward for this commitment was the award of the European Environment Certificate in 1996. - On July 9, 1999, the millionth Volkswagen from Saxony rolled off the assembly line – a satin silver Passat.
- In 2015 an energy park with an integrated electric charging station was commissioned in Zwickau. The park utilizes wind power and photovoltaics to generate electricity.
- On November 17, 2017, Volkswagen decided on the transformation of the Zwickau plant. For the launch of the ID.3, the plant was to be converted into the first pure e-mobility plant and the center of e-mobility in Europe.
- Production of Volkswagen’s ID.3 started on November 4, 2019. This is the first all-electric production model in the entirely new ID. family based on the modular electric drive toolkit (MEB).