VW begins EV plant conversion

VW’s largest electric car plant is currently being created in Zwickau: in future, up to 330,000 electric models per year are to roll off the production line there.

Volkswagen is converting an entire plant from the internal combustion engine to e-mobility. At the end of 2019, the production of the ID.1, Volkswagen’s first electric model based on the new modular electric toolkit (MEB), is due to start at Zwickau.

The Volkswagen brand is moving forward with its electric offensive and gradually creating the production capacity needed for building more than one million electric cars per year globally from 2025.

‘The start of production of the ID.1 in a good 12 months’ time will herald a new era for Volkswagen – comparable with the first Beetle or the first Golf,’ said Thomas Ulbrich, Volkswagen brand board member responsible for e-mobility. ‘We intend to take e-mobility out of its niche and to make the electric car affordable for millions of people. Efficient, modern production facilities will be the key. This is why we are bundling electric car production across the Group’s brands at Zwickau. In one year, this plant will become the starting point for our global electric offensive.’

Volkswagen is starting a far-reaching transformation of its global production network. In China too, two MEB plants are currently being created, at Anting/Shanghai and Foshan; they are due to start production only a few months after the Zwickau pilot plant in 2020. Volkswagen will also manufacture MEB vehicles in North America; the precise location is to be decided in the future.

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