Volkswagen announced a new factory for the Trinity electric model would be built close to the main plant in Wolfsburg at a cost of EUR2bn.
The supervisory board approved the new factory which, the automaker said, “is a key component of the largest modernisation programme in the history of Volkswagen’s main location”.
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Construction in the Warmenau district of Wolfsburg is to begin in spring 2023. The net carbon-neutral Trinity model is due to roll off the assembly line from 2026.
“The new facility with its optimized processes will therefore become a model for the gradual transformation of production at the main Wolfsburg plant along with all other Volkswagen manufacturing sites worldwide,” the automaker said.
CEO Ralf Brandstaetter said. “We are setting benchmarks in the automotive industry with Trinity and the new factory and turning Wolfsburg into the global lighthouse for cutting edge and efficient vehicle production. This reaffirms that the economic transformation of Germany as a centre of industry can be achieved.”
Daniela Cavallo, chairwoman of the general and group works councils, highlighted the link between the decision on Trinity and the new Campus Sandkamp also planned for the main plant. The campus will develop the group’s future highly scalable SSP vehicle platform, to be used for the first time in the volume segment for the Trinity project.
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By GlobalDataCavallo added: “The Trinity factory will become the blueprint for the existing main plant and for Volkswagen in general. We have also agreed that we will expand battery, charging and digitalisation activities here in Wolfsburg, centered around Trinity. All this safeguards employment and brings coherence to shaping the transformation in Wolfsburg.”
The decision to build the new factory on a greenfield site was preceded by an analysis of several options, including an intensive review of the feasibility to locate Trinity production within the Wolfsburg plant. Apart from higher efficiency in the medium term, factors favouring the construction of a new factory in Warmenau include in particular the fact that this option does not disrupt ongoing series production or ramp-ups of important models such as the Tiguan and Tayron or the Golf facelift scheduled for the coming years.
VW will start building the ID.3 in Wolfsburg in 2023 to meet high demand for the brand’s electric models.
