The construction of Volkswagen's Anhui MEB plant in Hefei has officially begun, according to a news release from Volkswagen China on April 28th. The plant is the group's third pure electric vehicle plant in China after SAIC Volkswagen Anting and FAW-Volkswagen Foshan MEB plant, which will use green energy in future production. The plant is expected to be completed in mid-2022 and the first model will be put into production in the second half of 2023. The new factory will lay the foundation for the group to accelerate electrification. By 2025, Volkswagen Group (China) plans to deliver about 1.5 million new energy vehicles a year.
It is reported that the construction of Volkswagen's new plant in Anhui includes the renovation and expansion of the former Jianghuai Automobile Group workshop, as well as a brand-new car body workshop; the project covers a total area of 500000 square meters, of which the new body workshop is expected to cover an area of about 141000 square meters.
Volkswagen Anhui also plans to centralize research and development, quality assurance, pre-production and testing departments in one park to shorten the launch cycle of new electric models. Future models will be based on MEB modular electric drive platform and continue Volkswagen's high-quality, safe and durable product genes.
Battery Network noted that on March 23, the Anhui provincial government issued a notice on the investment plan for key projects in 2021, among which the Jianghuai Volkswagen new energy vehicle project was impressively listed. According to the investment plan, the project has an annual production capacity of 100000 new energy vehicles.
According to Volkswagen's plan, there will be more than 10 models based on the MEB platform in the next few years. So far, in addition to its three factories in China, Volkswagen also produces MEB platform models in Zvico and Czech factories.
In addition, the Volkswagen Anhui project also plans to build a battery and parts supplier park in the factory.
It is worth noting that on March 15, Volkswagen Group held a "Volkswagen Battery Day" at its headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, revealing to the outside world the company's roadmap for battery and charging technology over the next decade. Volkswagen Group said that the purpose of the 2030 battery and charging technology roadmap is to significantly reduce the complexity and cost of batteries, so that electric vehicles can attract more users and become affordable technology for as many groups as possible. At the same time, the group is working to ensure the supply of batteries beyond 2025. In Europe alone, the company is expected to build six superbattery plants with a total capacity of 240GWh/ by 2030.
In order to solve the problems of insufficient private charging piles and low charging efficiency in China, Volkswagen has built 6000 charging stations and 6000 charging piles in eight cities with the help of its joint venture Camex this year, and plans to build 17000 charging piles in the Chinese market in 2025, with charging power ranging from 120kW to 300kW.
