VW: Start of production of the ID.5 completes electrification in Zwickau

With the official production start of the ID.5 and ID.5 GTX, the Volkswagen brand has completed the transformation of the Zwickau vehicle plant into a purely electric production site. The traditional site in Western Saxony is, according to Wolfsburg, the first large-scale factory of a volume manufacturer worldwide to be completely converted from internal combustion vehicles to electric drive. In Zwickau, six models from the Volkswagen, Audi (Q4 e-tron), and Cupra (Born) brands are now being manufactured based on the Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB).

This year, the plants in Emden (ID.4), Hanover (ID. Buzz), and Chattanooga (USA, ID.4) will also join the electric vehicle production network. This means the brand has created the conditions to build 1.2 million fully electric vehicles on an MEB basis at its locations in Europe, the USA, and China in 2022. The production capacity in Zwickau corresponds to an annual production of more than 300,000 vehicles—making the Zwickau vehicle plant the most productive production site for electric vehicles in Europe.

Body construction at 90 percent automation

The Zwickau vehicle plant has been converted from internal combustion to electromobility and into a digital, flexible, and highly efficient showcase factory since 2018 for around 1.2 billion euros. Among other things, smart Industry 4.0 robots and autonomous transport systems, which bring components completely autonomously to the assembly line, are increasingly used. Almost 40 percent of the investment volume was spent solely on the renewal and expansion of body construction.

The previously high level of automation in this area is now almost 90 percent, and the number of high-tech robots increased from 1,200 to 1,625. Automation in assembly was also nearly doubled to 28 percent—and the ergonomics of production significantly improved. Only jobs with monotonous or physically demanding tasks, such as working with hands above shoulder level or overhead, were affected.

Battery sequencer as the tallest building of the plant

In total, more than 50,000 square meters of building space have been newly created, for example for the expansion of the press shop, with which all outer body parts for the electric models are now pressed on-site—saving 9,000 truck journeys annually. Other major construction projects included the construction of a new logistics hall and a battery sequencer. The latter is now the tallest building in the Zwickau plant. The investment volume of these three projects alone amounts to around 115 million euros.

With e-mobility, sustainable jobs have been created in Zwickau. The approximately 9,000 permanent employees at the site have been prepared for the new technology through a further training initiative. All employees have attended information events on e-mobility. 3,000 employees completed the e-mobility training center, where they were trained in detail on the new production requirements. In total, the Zwickau team has completed around 20,000 training days by the end of 2020, the manufacturer further reports.

Green production is mandatory

With the models produced in Zwickau, only vehicles that are produced in a CO₂-neutral manner over the entire supply and production chain are delivered to customers, as it is claimed. In the manufacturing process, the creation of CO₂ is avoided or reduced as much as possible—and unavoidable emissions are offset through climate protection measures. The measures to avoid CO₂ in production also include the energy-intensive production of battery cells. For the production of the cells, it has been agreed that suppliers use green electricity from renewable sources. This significant lever can further improve the environmental balance of the e-car.

Electricity from 100% renewable sources

In the Zwickau plant, external electricity supply has already been switched to 100 percent green electricity since 2017. Remaining emissions from an in-house combined heat and power plant with highly efficient combined heat and power as well as the entire upstream chain have been offset for all models produced in Zwickau through certified climate projects according to officially recognized standards since the start of production of the ID.3 in November 2019.

“With six ramp-ups from three brands in just 26 months, the Zwickau vehicle plant has done important pioneering work for the group. The insights and experiences will help us to further electrify our production network quickly and efficiently,” says Christian Vollmer, Volkswagen brand production board member, confident.

Stefan Loth, Chairman of the Management Board of Volkswagen Saxony, adds that after the Transparent Factory in Dresden, the second Volkswagen vehicle manufacturing site in Saxony has been 100 percent converted to e-mobility.

"Depending on the supply situation with semiconductors, our focus is now on reaching the peak line. We want to exceed the 180,000 vehicles built at Volkswagen Saxony in 2021 this year," Loth looked ahead.