Volkswagen focuses more closely on multi-brand plants

Volkswagen has approved new plant assignment plans, which reflect the challenges of the next five years and lay the necessary foundations.

The plants in Emden and Hanover will be converted to build electric vehicles: models from the ID. family will begin rolling off the assembly lines there from 2022.

In order to serve growth in Europe, the Group will  expand its production capacity post-2022 with an additional plant in Eastern Europe.

All-electric cars will begin leaving the assembly lines in Emden and Hanover from 2022: electric small cars and sedans from several brands will be built in Emden, while Hanover will specialise in the production of the ID. BUZZ family in addition to building vehicles with conventional drives.

Production of the Volkswagen Passat family will be moved to the ŠKODA plant in Kvasiny, Czech Republic, and these models will be built there together with the ŠKODA Superb and Kodiaq from 2023.

The ŠKODA Karoq and the SEAT Ateca, currently produced in Kvasiny, will be transferred to a new Group multi-brand plant. The Group is looking for a new location in Eastern Europe.

The most important criteria for plant assignment are optimal utilisation of existing capacity, platform orientation and volume bundling.

As a result, flexible multi-brand plants will become increasingly common in order to harness the advantages of the flexible production network.

Efforts will be systematically geared to reusing existing resources and factory structures and to cross-brand standardisation with a view to increasing productivity and reducing factory costs and investments.

The Group is addressing the digital transformation of its plants to leverage further efficiencies. Group Production has targeted a 30 percent increase in productivity by 2025.