Volkswagen will be building a new production plant for its Trinity electric vehicle project close to its main manufacturing site in Wolfsburg, Germany, the automaker has announced. The Volkswagen Group has passed a resolution that will see investment of 2 billion euros (RM9.07 billion) go towards the development and production of Project Trinity.
This new production plant for Project Trinity will take place in the Warmenau district of Wolfsburg, for which construction will commence from the northern hemisphere spring of 2023, and the first Trinity production vehicle will roll off the production line from 2026, says Volkswagen.
“The decision by the Supervisory Board is an important milestone for the transformation of our brand and the future of the Wolfsburg production facility. We are thus strengthening and sustaining the competitiveness of the main plant and giving the workforce a robust long-term perspective,” Volkswagen CEO Ralf Brandstätter said.
This upcoming, new production plant will also serve as a model for the modernisation of the main Wolfsburg plant, as well as for all other Volkswagen production sites worldwide, the manufacturer added. The new plant tasked with producing the Trinity will have an annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles, in addition to the main Wolfsburg plant’s 500,000-unit annual volume, Brandstätter said previously.
With the start of production for the vehicle that will emerge from Project Trinity, Volkswagen aims to achieve a production time of 10 hours per vehicle, and key to achieving this will be through offering fewer variants, using fewer components and more automation for leaner production lines as well as using new logistic concepts, it said.
Project Trinity will be built upon the new SSP platform for Volkswagen Group products, and this is expected to serve as the basis for a run of more than 40 million vehicles in the future, said Volkswagen.
Volkswagen is also investing 800 million euros (RM3.6 billion) in what it calls the most advanced research and development centre in Europe, and also plans to integrate the production of modern SSP-based electric vehicles that will be modelled after the Trinity production facility at the main Wolfsburg plant by 2030, it said.
The SSP platform for Project Trinity effectively combines the Modular Electric Drive matrix (MEB) which underpins Volkswagen ID models and Premium Performance Electric (PPE) which is jointly developed by Audi and Porsche.
This model has been touted to feature Level 4 autonomous driving capabilities, and will boast of much shorter charging time than is presently possible while offering a maximum range of more than 700 km, according to Volkswagen.
“We are focusing on innovative and sustainable manufacturing concepts. Building a new factory in Warmenau also gives us the opportunity to make the existing factory fit for the future, step-by-step and from top to bottom. Trinity stands for a completely new kind of thinking, production, collaboration,” said Volkswagen boardmember for production and logistics Christian Vollmer.
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