VW Zwickau plant now EVs only
Volkswagen’s ICE age has ended at its Zwickau car factory after 116 years – now producing solely EVs.
Six electric models of the brands Volkswagen, Audi and Seat will be manufactured in 2021, VW says.
“The trend towards electric mobility will continue to pick up speed,” VW Sachsen technology and logistics managing director Reinhard de Vries says.
“We will meet this demand from Zwickau – we have already created the capacity to build 330,000 vehicles next year.”
VW Sachsen general works council chairman Jens Rothe says: “We have gained the trust in the group to become the first location to start fully electric large-scale series production. The Zwickau plant is therefore well-equipped for the future.”
About 1.2 billion euros of conversion work has already started in the factory’s Hall 6 where the Golf Estate was produced.
After a conversion phase lasting several weeks, the first EVs will be produced there at the end of the year. Alongside the ID.4, an SUV from the sister brand Audi is also planned. Series production of the ID.3 1st Edition started at the site in west Saxony in November 2019, and production of the ID.4 will start soon, VW says.
All 8000 employees will be prepared for EV production and for handling high-voltage systems, with the Zwickau team completing around 20,500 days of training by the end of 2020.
The ID.3 is the first vehicle based on the modular electric toolkit (MEB) from Volkswagen with the 1st
Edition launch throughout Europe in September 2020.
From 2021 the ID.3 will also be produced at the Transparent Factory in Dresden, while bodies for the Lamborghini and Bentley luxury SUVs will continue to be produced in Zwickau.
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