Volkswagen Group has entered a new era of e-mobility in China with the premiere just three weeks ago of the first two China-specific models from the completely new, electric-only ID. Family. With market entry in early 2021, production has already started at MEB facilities in Foshan and Anting, which together have a combined total planned annual capacity of 600,000 units. This will enable the Group to increase the share of electric vehicles in its product portfolio to 35 per cent by 2025. By 2023, Volkswagen will offer eight models of the ID. Family in China.
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Dr. Stephan Wollenstein, CEO of Volkswagen Group China, said, "Our ID. family, based on the MEB platform, will be an industry game-changer and will revolutionize the NEV market. The MEB provides unique versatility and is an incredibly flexible platform for vehicle production, meaning, we can offer customers a wide range of highly attractive electric models, from compact city cars to spacious buses or SUVs."
With market entry in early 2021, production has already started at MEB facilities in Foshan and Anting
The Anting MEB plant is Volkswagen Group's first greenfield MEB plant anywhere in the world, 100 per cent dedicated to the manufacture of pure-electric vehicles. Through standardization measures, the infrastructure investment at the new Anting plant was cut by 5 per cent compared to previous car plants, despite significant higher costs for site-specific requirements.
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The Foshan plant was revamped on the site of original production facilities as one of the most flexible plants in the global production network. It allows to produce both convention ICE models based on the MQB platform and pure-electric models based on the MEB platform on the same production line. A highly flexible set-up enables co-production of 6 to 8 MEB products. With more than 1,200 robots in the welding workshop and an automation rate of nearly 100 per cent in the paint shop, Foshan is one of the most productive plants in China.
