The first ID.3 vehicles will be delivered to customers in the summer. Among other things, customers will benefit from intuitive usability, dynamic driving behavior, numerous assistance systems and ranges of up to 550 kilometers. But the environment also benefits – because the ID.3 rolls off the production line in Zwickau in a CO2-neutral manner. This is made possible – among other things – by the fact that both the battery cell manufacturing process, and the vehicle production line, both run on 100 percent green electricity.
“The CO2 emissions per vehicle at the Zwickau site have more than halved within ten years,” CFO Bursig reports to the members of the Sustainability Council. To achieve this, Volkswagen has tightened many screws. “For example, we will expand the press shop that enables us to manufacture additional components directly on site,” says Bursig. The advantage: climate-damaging transport routes are eliminated. Volkswagen offsets unavoidable CO2 emissions by supporting climate protection projects.
But it is also the smaller initiatives that are transforming the Zwickau location. Among other things, employees have planted fruit trees, and more than 400,000 bees produce “VW honey” on the factory premises. The aim: to firmly anchor environmental protection in the consciousness. “It should be visible at all times how important the subject of sustainability is to us,” says Bursig. This is another reason why there is a solar system right at the entrance to the plant. There is an electric charging station right next to it. On one wall there is a short sentence that could signify the change for the whole location: Vision becomes reality.