-
Over 6 million Volkswagen models were built in Zwickau since 1990
-
Zwickau will be the largest electric vehicle factory in Europe
-
Expected annual capacity will reach 330,000 units
Volkswagen‘s famed Zwickau factory will stop producing the Volkswagen vehicles with combustion engines, shifting its focus to electric vehicles. By 2021, the plant will be building six electric models from Volkswagen, Audi, and SEAT, and in the process will become the largest electric vehicle factory in Europe.
The last Volkswagen Golf left the factory on Friday, becoming the final combustion engine vehicle ever produced in Zwickau. That’s quite the milestone for a plant that has been building cars for 116 years and the Volkswagen Golf since 1990. Over 6 million VW models were produced in Zwickau including the Polo, Golf, and Passat. Trabant and Horch models were built in Zwickau since 1904. The final unit was a Golf R Estate painted in Oryx White Pearl that’s headed to a customer in Germany.
“Today is a historic day for us. We are proud of what we have achieved so far, and at the same time are greatly looking forward to what the future holds for us. The trend towards electric mobility will continue to pick up speed. We will meet this demand from Zwickau: we have already created the capacity to build 330,000 vehicles next year”, said Reinhard de Vries, Managing Director of Technology and Logistics at Volkswagen Sachsen.
Those cars will include the Volkswagen ID.3 and e-Golf as well as the Audi e-tron series. Converting the Zwickau factory to focus on electric vehicles will cost VW 1.2 billion euros. All of the 8,000 employees at the plant will receive the necessary training for the next phase of production.
