Last week, SAIC VOLKSWAGEN broke ground for the construction of the Group’s first plant specifically designed for the construction of MEB vehicles. The Group is thus driving electrification in the world‘s largest market for electric vehicles. We remember: By 2025, the Volkswagen Group wants to have 50 electric car and 30 plug-in hybrid models on the market across all brands. In order to be able to work cost-efficiently and quickly, almost all future electric vehicles in the VW brand family are to be built on the same platform – the MEB modular electrical construction kit. The first MEB electric car to be launched in 2020 is the I.D. debut.
The plan is for production to start in 2020 with a Volkswagen brand SUV, with a planned annual production capacity of 300.000 vehicles. Anting and the FAW-Volkswagen plant in Foshan, China, which opened this summer, will start producing MEB-based electric vehicles immediately after the German location in Zwickau.
“With the MEB, we will offer our Chinese customers state-of-the-art e-cars. Together with its joint venture partners in China, the Volkswagen Group is consistently focusing on sustainable mobility and is thus driving structural change in the automotive industry worldwide. This is further evidence of the great importance of the Chinese market for the entire Volkswagen Group.“ – Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen Group
With the construction of the new plant in Anting, Shanghai, the main location of SAIC Volkswagen, the focus is not only on e-mobility, but also on the clear orientation of a production network that raises automation and efficiency to the latest standards. Here, VW consistently relies on Industry 4.0. This is expressed by the use of a total of 1.400 industry 4.0 robots and future technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality, this turns the factory into a highly digitized production facility.
610 in total.000 square meters are available for the production of vehicles based on MEB. The new plant offers a large number of operating areas, from press systems and test tracks to the assembly of battery systems. The focus of the plant is particularly on keeping water clean, saving energy and reducing carbon dioxide.
The factory will produce various new SAIC VOLKSWAGEN electric vehicles and battery systems. The first car produced there, a Volkswagen SUV based on MEB, will be presented in 2020. With the new factory in Anting, the consistent implementation of the Volkswagen Group E-Mobility Strategy in China.
It is no coincidence that the first pure MEB plant is being built in China. After all, China is the leading e-vehicle market and thus plays a central role for VW. In addition to the new plant in Anting, a second FAW-Volkswagen plant was opened in Foshan in June. This has increased the production capacity in Foshan from 300.000 to 600.000 vehicles increased annually. In addition to new SUV models from Volkswagen and Audi, the vehicles manufactured there are gradually being electrified. By 2020, the production of MEB-based vehicles and MEB battery systems will also start there.
The production of VW models at the FAW-Volkswagen plant in Qingdao started at the end of May 2018. The flexible production enables models with internal combustion engines and electric drives to be manufactured on the same production line. FAW-Volkswagen will also start producing battery systems for the MQB platform there.
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