VW adds to its EV network with a second German site
Volkswagen is pressing ahead with gearing its plants to electric mobility. Volkswagen is expanding its global production network for electric vehicles by starting to make the all-electric ID.4 in Emden.
Emden is now the second site for electric vehicles in Germany following Zwickau and also joins the Chinese plants in Anting and Foshan. Chattanooga (ID.4) and Hanover will also start production this year.
With the addition of Emden, the company has set the stage for building 1.2 million all-electric vehicles a year based on the MEB in the future at its sites in Europe, the U.S. and China.
Volkswagen says in a press release that it has invested around one billion euros in converting the Emden plant with its 8,000 employees. Emden is thus the first high-tech site for electric mobility in Lower Saxony. The Volkswagen Group will invest a total of EUR 21 billion in Lower Saxony up to 2026 aiming to make the federal state Germany’s center for electric mobility.
“Volkswagen is making Lower Saxony, where we have 130,000 employees, Germany’s center for electric mobility,” says Volkswagen CEO Ralf Brandstätter in the press release.
Besides the ID.4, the Emden plant will also make another model – the AERO B – next year. In addition, production of the ID. Buzz will start later this year in Hanover. It will be joined from 2023 on by the ID.3 made in Wolfsburg – an additional electric vehicle, the Trinity, will roll off the assembly line at the location starting in 2026.
The Group is also investing in Braunschweig, Salzgitter and Kassel, among other things in further expansion of the existing MEB production of battery systems, rotors/stators and electric motors. The Salzgitter location is being expanded further into a European battery hub. Investments in Lower Saxony will add up to EUR 21 billion overall by 2026.
The ID.4’s start-up is said to be on schedule, despite the global challenges during the two-year conversion phase. Emden’s maximum production capacity at the end of 2022 will be 800 units per working day, depending on the supply situation.
Six new production halls and five new conveyor bridges and logistics buildings over a total area of some 125,000 square meters have been created as part of the plant’s conversion.
