Volkswagen is one of the groups that are in a feverish phase of transformation driven by the increasing demand for electric cars. Still, to achieve its goal of becoming one of the leading electric car manufacturers on the market, Volkswagen will have to transform several of its factories into specialized facilities for the production of this type of vehicle, including the already 100% electric Zwickau. It has now been the turn of another of the group’s large facilities, the Emden factory.
Volkswagen has confirmed the start of the conversion work for this plant, which will receive 1,000 million euros to modernize it and adapt it to the manufacture of electric cars based on the MEB electric modular platform.
Emden will be the first plant in Lower Saxony, where high-volume electric cars will be produced. ID.4 units are planned to be assembled in its lines from 2022, in addition to other models yet to be confirmed. Some lines that will temporarily share with models with a combustion engine, such as the Passat or the Arteon, will gradually leave their space to the electric ones to achieve an annual capacity of some 330,000 units.
The core of this factory’s conversion project is the construction of a new production area with an area of almost 50,000 square meters where only electric cars will be assembled and added to the paint and press areas. The buildings are expected to be completed in the summer of 2021 to allow pre-production work to begin after the summer of that year—a fundamental step to start serial production as early as 2022.
