Plans for new plant cancelled
VW enhancing production flexibility
Volkswagen has just announced that it will be building an electric Golf at its Wolfsburg plant and that it will be moving its Trinity flagship EV to Zwickau. The announcements are part of a huge EV allocation announcement that covers much of the company’s vehicle electrification plans for the next five years.
“Our industry faces complex challenges as it undergoes a transformation that is being conducted under difficult business conditions. It is all the more important that we prepare our individual plants and the Volkswagen production network in Germany for the future. Within the context of our performance program, this newly approved vehicle allocation plan will make a substantial contribution to a strong, competitive VW brand,” said VW Brand CEO Thomas Schäfer.
Volkswagen had been planning a new 2 billion euro plant near its HQ in Wolfsburg. This new shuffling of factory production has put a stop to that plan since the company has figured out how to have enough capacity at its existing plants and integrate EV production with ICE.
Wolfsburg, VW’s home plant, will build an electric version of the Golf. That car will be on VW’s Scalable Systems Platform, the successor to the MEB platform that underpins its current ID. models. Volkswagen expects that model on sale before the end of the decade, and other SSP models will also be built at the plant.
In the meantime, the Wolfsburg plant will add a second EV alongside the ID.3. That will be a new A-segment EV. In Europe, the A-segment is superminis, like VW’s Up! The plant will also build the current gas Golf and new Tiguan generation, as well as the Tiguan Allspace starting in 2025.
Project Trinity, VW’s new-generation electric sedan has been moved from Wolfsburg to Zwickau. The model has already faced delays, pushing it back to 2030. It’s not clear if this change will affect those delays.
