Having only just announced the ID.3 production start at Zwickau in Germany, Volkswagen followed up with an announcement pre-production was under way in the ‘first plant focused only on e-mobility’ in China.
The start of production at the SAIC plant in Anting – now completed – is scheduled for October 2020.
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The factory was built solely to make electric vehicles on VW’s Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB).
The start of pre-production was marked when the first China-specific ID. model came off the production line.
“The [group] projects a total volume of 22m all electric cars worldwide by 2028 with more than [half] from China [which] plays a crucial part in our electrification strategy, which will pave the way to [our] goal of becoming net carbon-neutral by 2050,” said VW chairman Herbert Diess.
Anting has capacity for 300,000 vehicles a year and will start output at the same time as a FAW-Volkswagen plant in Foshan, resulting in combined capacity of 600,000.
After the China only VW ID. model, the plant will start making MEB platform-based BEV models for various group brands with up to 15 variants by 2025.
VW said the new factory sets a benchmark in China by allowing six different car projects to run simultaneously.
