Volkswagen initiates production of ID.3 electric vehicle

KUALA LUMPUR: The German automobile manufacturer, Volkswagen has officially started the series production of its first electric vehicle ID.3. The production process will be carried out in Zwickau, Germany. The manufacturing site has been transformed completely to produce electric vehicles and the brand has invested around €1.2 billion in it so far. According to the carmaker, this manufacturing plant is scheduled to produce 100,000 EVs by the succeeding year.

Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen Group, said at the production commencement event “The ID.3 will make an important contribution to the breakthrough of e-mobility. It makes clean individual mobility accessible to millions of people and is a milestone for our company on the road to becoming climate-neutral by 2050. Germany must drive the change and achieve proficiency throughout the e-mobility value chain. That is why we are producing EVs in Germany and have at the same time taken the decision to develop and manufacture electric motors as well as battery cells and systems. A strong cluster for EVs will emerge in Germany in the coming years.”

The carmaker declared that the Zwickau plant is going through a phase conversion and by the year 2021, it will be in its final expansion stage and will be capable of manufacturing six MEB platform-based models. There are a total of 8,000 employees who are going through qualification measures so that they are completely familiar with the high-voltage technology and the production of the EVs.  

Thomas Ulbrich, the Volkswagen board member for e-mobility stated that ID.3 is a high-tech vehicle that is manufactured from a high-tech plant. The high tech plant is equipped with driverless transport systems, 1,700 robots and completely-automated manufacturing processes.

Volkswagen ID.3 is expected to launch across European markets by the summer of 2020. In addition to that, more than 35,000 customers have already pre-booked the vehicle internationally. 

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