Volkswagen Sachsen GMBH
Zwickau Plant

Plant

The Zwickau plant has an area of 1,800,000 m², corresponding to 252 soccer pitches.

Production

As regards internal combustion engine models, the Zwickau plant manufactures left- and right-hand-drive versions of the Golf Variant , the Golf Alltrack Variant, the Golf R Variant, the Golf GTD Variant and the Passat Variant with front-wheel and 4Motion drive. Production of these ICE models is to be discontinued in the summer of 2020. in 2019, 170,324 vehicles were produced. Since the plant was founded in 1990, more than 6 million vehicles have rolled off the production lines.

Since November 4, 2019, the Volkswagen ID.3, the first electric vehicle of the ID. family based on the modular electric drive toolkit (MEB), has been produced at Zwickau. With the start of production, Zwickau is playing a key role: for the first time, a major car factory has been converted entirely to e-mobility. The total investment is €1.2 billion. In 2020, 100,000 electric cars are already to be produced at Zwickau. In the final stage of development, from 2021, six electric models for three Group brands are to be produced at the plant, with a total volume of up to 330,000 units per year. The plant will therefore become the largest and highest-performance electric car plant in Europe and will play a pioneering role in the transformation of Volkswagen’s global production network.

The plant also has centers for the production of special-order vehicles, natural gas racks and aluminum parts. In addition, Zwickau manufactures body shells for the Bentley Bentayga and Bentley Continental series as well as the Lamborghini Urus. Up to 15 million pressed parts per year from the Zwickau press shop are delivered to VW plants worldwide.

Environment

The integration of environmental protection in all business and decision-making processes is a key element of strategic decisions at Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH. Production processes at theZwickau plant are continually optimized to ensure that production is as environmentally compatible as possible and to conserve natural resources. Efforts focus on the reduction of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions at the plant. Other key elements are the reduction of production waste and industrial drinking water consumption.

Zwickau is playing a pioneering role with the production of the ID.3. This will be the first electricmodel of the Volkswagen Group to have a neutral carbon balance over its entire life cycle if customers consistently charge their batteries with green power. With reference to the production phase alone, the CO₂ balance of the ID.3 will be improved by far more than 100,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year.

Spacious environmental compensation areas and orchards have been established on and around the site of the Zwickau vehicle plant. Two streams near the plant have been restored to a near-natural condition over a length of 3.3 km and now offer ideal habitats for a wide variety of fauna.There are also 25 beehives, each with 50,000 or so bees producing three types of honey every year. With its own compact cogeneration plant, a photovoltaic system and a dedicated energy park including a charging station for electric vehicles, energy systems at the Zwickau plant are in line with the principles of the Think Blue. Factory. program, The vehicle plant is a member of Umweltallianz Sachsen (the Saxon Environmental Alliance). It has validated environmental, energy and quality management systems and is certified. It isincluded in the EMAS register and publishes an environmental declaration.

Plant manager

Plant Manager Reinhard de Vries has been Managing Director of Technology and Logistics at Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH since April 5, 2018. He is a business graduate and logistics expert and held management positions with Volkswagen in several countries from1986 onwards. Before joining Volkswagen Sachsen, he was responsible for production control and logistics for the Volkswagen brand in Wolfsburg.

About Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH

The founding of Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH in December 1990 marked the launch of an ambitious project by Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft to establish a competitive production facility for Volkswagen vehicles and engines in one of the most traditional regions of the German automotive industry. In addition to the temporary utilization of existing facilities at Zwickau and Chemnitz, which Volkswagen fully modernized, two new manufacturing facilities were built for vehicle and engine production.

The Transparent Factory in Dresden was inaugurated in 2001 and Automobilmanufaktur Dresden GmbH merged with Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH in 2014.

Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH has three production facilities: a vehicle plant at Zwickau, an engine plant at Chemnitz and the Transparent Factory in Dresden. Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH has a workforce of about 10,300 people (including employees of the Volkswagen Training Institute). Some 98 per cent of the highly qualified workforce have either completed vocational training in a specialized field, are certified master craftsmen, or hold a degree. The average age of the employees is about 44 years and women account for 11 percent of the workforce.

Thomas Ulbrich, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen brand responsible for E-Mobility, is Speaker of the Management Board ofVolkswagen Sachsen GmbH. The Management Board also includes Matthias Bursig (Finance and Controlling), Dirk Coers (HR and Organization), and Reinhard de Vries (Technology and Logistics).