Name of the Project
Volkswagen Zwickau-Mosel plant upgrade.

Location
The project is located in Zwickau, Germany.

Project Owner/s
Volkswagen.

Project Description
The Volkswagen brand expects to be building up to 1.5-million electric cars a year by 2025.

To enable this level of mass production, the entire Zwickau factory is being converted from producing 100% internal combustion engines to 100% electric vehicles.

Transformation of the Zwickau plant is being completed in stages and during normal operation.

To date, the body shop, paint shop and infrastructure have been extensively modernised and refurbished. Among other things, the entire conveyor technology had to be aligned for electric vehicles.

In addition, two assembly lines will be converted.

In addition to the conversion of the manufacturing lines, 12 new halls and buildings are being built at the Zwickau plant to achieve the planned increase in daily production capacity from 1 350 to 1 500 vehicles.

The largest single project is the expansion of the press shop.

From 2021, almost all pressed parts required for the cars built in Zwickau will be produced on site. The fully automated process to convert steel sheet into finished parts is also new. In total, 50 000 m² of new hall space are being built.

Six models, based on Volkswagen’s modular electric drive toolkit platform for three group brands, are scheduled to be built in Zwickau from 2021.

The first of this new generation of electric cars rolling off the production line since November is the ID.3.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Capital Expenditure
€1.2-billion.

Investment into the press shop amounts to about €74-million, with the new large-capacity press accounting for the bulk of the costs.

Planned Start/End Date
The phased transformation of the factory began in 2018 and will be fully completed in 2021.

Latest Developments
The first of two lines for the body shop and final assembly has been implemented and series production has started.

The second line is being realised and is scheduled to go into operation in 2020.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Siemens (automation technology).

Contact Details for Project Information
Volkswagen head of ex­ter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tions Dr Carsten Krebs, tel +49 173265 8158 or email christoph.adomat@volkswagen.de.