Electrification is the future and Volkswagen is committed to being part of said future as the brand commence construction of their new dedicated factory for electric vehicles in Anting, China. The SAIC Volkswagen China plant will the first mass production site for e-cars under the Volkswagen Group.
Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, Herbert Diess said: “The Volkswagen Group, its brands and their Chinese joint venture partners focus consistently on sustainable mobility and push the transformation of the automotive industry in China and worldwide. In this way, we point out the high importance the Chinese market has for the Volkswagen Group.”
The plant will focus on building Volkswagen vehicles based on the MEB (Modular Electric Drive Kit) platform. The first car to roll out from the new plant will be an electric SUV in 2020 and will focus on building medium- and large-sized pure electric SUVs, as well as battery systems.
The new 610,000 square meters facility is part of a joint venture between SAIC and Volkswagen, adopting a production network structure based on Industry 4.0, placing emphasis on automation and efficiency. The plant also utilises 27 types of environmentally-friendly technologies with a focus on water preservation, energy saving and carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) reduction, turning the factory into a veritable “Green Field Factory”.
The Anting factory has a planned annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles and will operate alongside the FAW-Volkswagen factory in Foshan, which opened this summer.
