VW has officially started production of the ID.5

VW has officially started production of the ID.5 and ID.5 GTX at the Zwickau plant, which also marked the completion of the factory’s successful transformation into an exclusively electric vehicle production unit.

This is the first worldwide corresponding conversion of a factory of any mass manufacturer, which from traditional production of cars with an internal combustion engine completely transitions to the era of electrification and the production of exclusively electric cars.

Six models of the Volkswagen Group are currently manufactured in Zwickau, Volkswagen’s ID.3, ID.4 and ID.5 as well as the Audi Q4 e-tron, Q4 Sportback e-tron and CUPRA Born, all based on the modular platform for electrification (MEB).

Factories in Emden (ID.4), Hanover (ID. Buzz) and Chattanooga in the U.S. (ID.4) will be added later this year to the brand’s electric vehicle production network.

• Cheapest VW ID. Series family model comes on 2025
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The whole conversion was achieved in a record time of just 26 months. Since 2018, around 1.2 billion euros have been spent on the conversion of the Zwickau plant. An even greater use of advanced technology has been adopted such as industry 4.0 smart robots and driverless transport systems.

Its annual production capacity is over 300,000 vehicles, making the Zwickau plant today the most efficient of its kind in Europe.

Almost 40% of the investment in Zwickau was devoted to the improvement and expansion of the body shop. The already high level of automation of this segment now reaches almost 90%, and the number of state-of-the-art robots has increased from 1,200 to 1,625.

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