In recent years, SAIC Motor and Volkswagen Group have continued to deepen cooperation in electrification, intelligent networking and high-end branding. The completion of the new energy vehicle factory and the roll-off of the first ID. car are one of the latest achievements of the cooperation between the shareholders and an important milestone of SAIC Volkswagen’s future-oriented transformation and upgrading.
SAIC Volkswagen’s new energy vehicle factory is located in Anting, Shanghai. It is the world’s first newly built factory for the production of MEB platform models of the Volkswagen Group. The total investment of the project is 17 billion yuan, and the planned annual production capacity is 300,000 vehicles. It will be officially put into operation in October 2020. It is currently the largest and most efficient pure electric vehicle factory in China.
The new factory integrates intelligent manufacturing, energy saving and environmental protection, adopts more than 1,400 industrial robots, and applies leading manufacturing technology on a large scale to realize the intelligence and digitalization of the whole manufacturing process; in addition, the factory uses 27 new environmental protection and energy saving technologies to realize energy Five key environmental indicators, including water, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and waste, were reduced by 20%. The new factory broke ground last October. After 12 months of construction, this modern benchmark factory is about to be fully put into use, and SAIC Volkswagen has taken another solid step towards its strategic goal of becoming a leader in electric vehicles by 2025.
The first ID. car rolled off the production line of the new energy vehicle factory is a pure electric medium-sized SUV on the MEB platform. It is also the first ID. family model that SAIC Volkswagen will put into production in the future. In addition, the milestone model of the Volkswagen brand, the ID.3, the world’s first mass-produced electric vehicle, will also be produced at SAIC Volkswagen’s new energy vehicle plant in the future.
In the future, the new factory will put into production a new generation of pure electric vehicles of various brands of the Volkswagen Group. As the first ID. car rolled off the production line, various production preparations for the subsequent production models have also been fully launched. Based on the MEB platform, SAIC Volkswagen will build a family of pure electric vehicles suitable for Chinese consumers, meet the needs of different consumers, and set a new benchmark in the field of electric vehicles with reliable quality, advanced technology and cutting-edge design.
The MEB platform is a pure electric vehicle platform developed by the Volkswagen Group for mass production. The platform adopts an innovative arrangement of flat battery modules, which enables the vehicle to have a longer wheelbase and shorter front and rear overhangs. Compared with traditional fuel vehicles of the same level, the wheelbase has been greatly improved, and the interior space of the vehicle is larger. The battery pack of the MEB platform product is extremely expandable, and the driving power level can be adjusted according to the purpose of different models, and the maximum cruising range can reach more than 550 kilometers. In addition, the MEB platform can integrate brand new in-vehicle assistance, infotainment, control and display systems to realize highly intelligent networking of the entire vehicle and create an always-on and comprehensive digital ecosystem for users.
As one of the oldest automobile joint ventures in China, SAIC Volkswagen has been deeply involved in the Chinese consumer market for 35 years and has gained the trust of more than 21 million users. Faced with the transformation of personal travel methods, SAIC Volkswagen is constantly accelerating the deployment of new energy products based on the company’s “co-creation 2025” strategy. In 2018, Tiguan L plug-in hybrid version and Passat plug-in hybrid version were launched successively, leading the domestic joint venture PHEV market. In 2019, Lavida, the first pure electric product, was launched on the market, setting a new safety benchmark for the new energy market with the leading “German three-electric technology”. In the future, SAIC Volkswagen will introduce a variety of new-generation pure electric vehicles based on the MEB platform to the market one after another.
Change is for a better future. The completion of the new energy vehicle factory has opened a new chapter for SAIC Volkswagen’s comprehensive electrification and intelligent networking. SAIC Volkswagen will continue to be user-oriented, give full play to the cooperation advantages of both shareholders, and realize green and intelligent travel dreams for consumers with better products and innovative services.
