The Volkswagen Group’s first factory specifically designed for the MEB platform is now under construction in Anting, China. The first model set to be produced in the SAIC Volkswagen factory will be a VW brand SUV, due in 2020. Together with the FAW-Volkswagen factory in Foshan, China, which opened in summer 2018, SAIC Volkswagen’s plant will begin to produce electric cars on the MEB platform directly after the first worldwide MEB-production starts in Zwickau, Germany.
“Through Volkswagen’s MEB platform, we will be able to easily produce state-of-the-art electric vehicles for our Chinese customers on a high scale,” says Herbert Diess, chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen Group. “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 emphasize the importance of the Chinese market for the Volkswagen Group.”
SAIC Volkswagen’s new Anting factory adopts a production network based on Industry 4.0 and increases automation rates and efficiency. The facility will be equipped with over 1,400 Industry 4.0 standard robots, as well as a range of technologies including AI, AR and VR. Covering 610,000m2, the plant includes a variety of different function areas such as pressing equipment and battery assembly workshops, in addition to an elevated stereoscopic warehouse, a proving road and more. The facility will also utilize 27 types of environmentally friendly technologies with a special focus on water preservation, energy saving and the reduction of carbon dioxide.
The facility is scheduled to begin vehicle production by 2020, with a planned annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles. It will produce various new pure-electric vehicles, including medium and large electric SUVs, as well as battery systems.
MEB is Volkswagen’s first pure-electric automotive modular platform developed for mass production.
