Although it missed out on Volkswagen’s huge order of factory robots from FANUC and ABB in October, German industrial robot manufacturer Kuka will indeed be supplying equipment for VW’s electric vehicle production. A “major” order was placed to the Chinese company Midea Group for body-in-white production of the Volkswagen ID.BUZZ.
Preparations have already started for the all-new electric model and it will be produced at the Hanover plant starting in 2022: “KUKA is responsible for the planning, delivery, assembly and commissioning of a fully automated body shop system for the underbody of the all-electric ID. BUZZ. Most of the systems are assembled at KUKA in Augsburg, commissioned and then delivered to the customer. On an area of about 14,000 square meters, underbody 1 and 2 including associated subassemblies will be implemented. Process technologies such as resistance spot welding, bonding, nut and stud welding are carried out in the 15 modular production lines. Among other things, so-called KUKA Rack Changer are used to supply the car body components to the production line.”
As mentioned above, preparations for production of the passenger version of the all-electric ID.BUZZ have already begun, but we will see even more in the coming year. The VW Electric Microbus is an electric minivan based on the electric MEB platform. It is the second concept vehicle to be shown from the I.D. series of MEB-based electric vehicles.
Following the production of the ID.BUZZ, Volkswagens Hanover plant will focus on will be on becoming the production site for three completely new premium electric vehicles in the Group.
Chairman of the board of management at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Dr Carsten Intra stated: “These D-SUVs are genuine flagship projects: premium, 100 percent electric, and highly automated. Today’s decision by the Volkswagen supervisory board is thus an important milestone for our high-tech site and a great show of faith in the productivity of our team. We were able to secure this decision in favor of our location with our assured efficiency and top level of production quality. My thanks are due today to every one of our colleagues whose work made this pioneering decision possible.”