Volkswagen Wolfsburg Plant to Train 22,000 Employees in E-Mobility by 2025
The largest car factory in Europe is launching a qualification offensive in which the production workforce will be trained and further educated on the topic of electromobility. This move further advances the Volkswagen brand's transition of its German plants to the production of electric cars, according to sources from Wolfsburg. Following the passenger car plants in Zwickau and Emden, Wolfsburg is also set to become an electric factory in the coming years. In this fundamental transformation, the site is relying not only on professional training but also on emotions: for this purpose, an eMotionRoom has been opened in the Wolfsburg plant, where 22,000 production employees will undergo and experience the transformation process from combustion engine to electric car in a playful manner over the coming months.
The eMotionRoom is part of a one-day training program (eMotionDay) in which Wolfsburg's production employees will participate until 2025. This fall, production of a vehicle on the Modular Electric Drive Toolkit platform, MEB for short, will begin in Wolfsburg for the first time with the successful model ID.3. By summer, around 1,200 employees are expected to have been trained for ID.3 production.
"On our way to becoming a provider of sustainable and software-oriented mobility, we at Volkswagen are continuously working on innovative training and continuing education concepts. These are the key to a successful transformation for us. The more digital our world becomes, the more decisive our team's skills are for competitiveness," explains Group HR Director Gunnar Kilian at the opening of the eMotionRoom.
Deputy General Works Council Chairman Gerardo Scarpino points out that employees have already had very good experiences with the eMotionRoom principle in Zwickau.
"The shift to e-mobility can only be achieved together with our colleagues. Bringing them on board early, inspiring them, and qualifying them is absolutely crucial for our success. Because transformation can only succeed together – and the eMotionRoom is an important piece of the puzzle in that," Scarpino emphasized.
The eMotionRoom in Wolfsburg was internally designed by the Volkswagen Group Academy and the plant organization. It has three rooms where various puzzles and tasks must be solved in 20-minute intervals. It is part of a one-day eMotionDay, which also presents other training topics – such as the use of VR glasses in production or new professions like commissioning engineers. The eMotionRoom is expected to be used at least until the end of 2024.
"After Zwickau and Emden, our Wolfsburg plant will now also begin the transition to electromobility within the German production network of the brand," points out Christian Vollmer, Brand Board Member for Production and Logistics at Volkswagen, highlighting the fundamental transformation of car production in Germany.
What's special in Wolfsburg is that combustion engines will still be built here for many years. In Wolfsburg, the upcoming transformation mainly means integration – seamlessly into the ongoing operation of the plant and into production. This represents a particular challenge.
Partial Assembly of the ID.3 Begins This Fall
Partial assembly of the ID.3 will begin this fall in the Wolfsburg plant. Starting in mid-2024, the full production of a significant number of this popular electric model is expected to roll off the line at the main plant. "With the new production line at our Wolfsburg plant, we will be more flexible than ever before," says Site Manager Rainer Fessel. The assembly line will be the first in a German passenger car plant of the Volkswagen brand that can simultaneously produce combustion vehicles and MEB-based models on one line. With the future SSP platform, Wolfsburg will evolve into a multi-platform plant for Volkswagen over the next few years. Fessel sees this as a significant advantage for the utilization of the main plant in the coming decade.
"We are securing employment at the Wolfsburg plant and giving our workforce a clear perspective for the future," says the Plant Manager.
SSP stands for Scalable Systems Platform. The new production line for the ID.3 and the new Tiguan will be set up in the coming months. Volkswagen will initially invest 460 million euros for this by early 2025. The majority of this sum will go into production facilities, with a portion funding qualifications – such as the eMotionRoom – and restructuring measures. Following the ID.3, another MEB model (SUV) will roll off the assembly line in Wolfsburg in the near future.
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