E-car production for the world

Volkswagen is energetically pushing ahead with its electric offensive in 2021 as well. The brand will soon start deliveries of the ID.4, the first all-electric SUV. This year will also witness the launch of another model in the ID. family to the market. As the number of models increase, so does the volume: after the brand delivered around 134,000 pure e-cars last year, further growth is planned for the coming years. The establishment of a global network for the production of electric vehicles plays a decisive role in this. “The Volkswagen brand is systematically continuing its e-offensive. In addition to new e-models, this also includes the transformation of the global production network. In this way, we are underpinning our ambitions to become a global leader in e-mobility,” says Thomas Ulbrich, Member of the Board of Management for E-Mobility at the Volkswagen brand.

The latest example is the start of series production of the ID.3 at the Transparent Factory in Dresden. At the Saxon site, where the luxury Phaeton sedan, the Bentley Flying Spur and most recently the e-Golf previously rolled off the production line, 35 ID.3 vehicles will be produced every day from the end of January. The Transparent Factory will also be strengthened as a research and innovation site, driving innovative projects for late-stage deployment at major volume Volkswagen brand sites and offering visitors and guests a holistic experience of the ID. family.

Dresden is already the fourth location worldwide where the Volkswagen brand produces purely electric models based on the MEB architecture. And while Dresden is a relatively small site, the other MEB plants in Zwickau, Anting and Foshan (both in China) represent large volumes. The Zwickau plant was the first site to start MEB production at the end of 2019. The facility has completed a full transformation from 100% internal combustion to 100% electric. Production is currently being ramped up step by step, with around 800 all-electric ID.3 and ID.4 models currently being produced there per working day. Further electric models from Audi and Cupra will be added in the course of the year. As a pure e-car plant, Zwickau will be able to produce up to 1,500 vehicles per day or 330,000 vehicles per year at its peak.

In addition, towards the end of 2020, the Chinese sites in Anting and Foshan began producing the ID.4 CROZZ and ID.4 X MEB models. The plant in Anting is a pure e-car plant and the world’s first newly built MEB plant by Volkswagen. In the future, the Foshan plant will be able to build both conventional models with combustion engines based on the MQB platform and purely electric MEB models on a shared production line. Both plants were fully brought up to series production within just two years and each has a maximum production capacity of 300,000 units per year.

Together, Volkswagen’s four MEB plants in Zwickau, Anting, Foshan and Dresden have a maximum production capacity of more than 900,000 vehicles per year. Added to this is the ŠKODA plant in Mladá Boleslav, which has also already started MEB production. In the future, up to 350 all-electric ŠKODA ENYAQ iV vehicles will roll off the production line there every day. All MEB plants are still in the ramp-up phase. In the future, however, this production network will have a maximum production capacity of up to one million e-vehicles per year. And with Emden, Hanover and Chattanooga (USA), the next sites are already preparing for MEB production. The first vehicles are expected to roll off the production lines there next year.

In addition to the vehicle-producing plants, Volkswagen Group Components plants are also repositioning themselves for e-mobility. The plant in Kassel, for example, supplies electric drives and platform parts for the MEB architecture. The MEB battery system is developed and manufactured at the Brunswick and Foshan sites. The core elements of electric motors – rotor and stator – are supplied from the Salzgitter components plant. And with the Center of Excellence Battery Cell (CoE), the Group-wide know-how for battery technology is also bundled in Salzgitter. This also includes manufacturing: Right next door, the first battery cell factory of the Northvolt Zwei joint venture will be built by 2024 in cooperation with the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt AB.