Volkswagen has started production at a new factory to cope with the exceptional demand for its ID.4 electric SUV. The new plant in Emden, Germany, becomes the second Volkswagen factory in Europe and the fourth globally to produce electric cars. It will also produce a new ID model, the Passat-sized ID. AERO, which will be launched early next year. Bosses are hoping that the expanded production capability will ease waiting times which are at a record high. Emden’s maximum production capacity at the end of 2022 will be 800 cars per working day, depending on the supply situation.

Until now, all European production of the ID.4 has been handled in the brand’s flagship Zwickau plant in Germany - a former Trabant factory that has been transformed into an electric car-building hub. The facility currently builds the ID.3, Audi Q4 e-tron, ID.4, ID.5 and Cupra Born, and has struggled to meet worldwide demand for the VW Group’s vehicles. Later this year, Volkswagen will start ID.4 assembly in Chattanooga in the USA and add another European production line at Hanover in Germany. The ID.4 is also built in two factories in China; Anting and Foshan. 

The brand plans to build 1.2 million all-electric vehicles a year based on its MEB architecture and has invested around one million euros in converting the Emden plant with its 8,000 employees. The Volkswagen Group will invest a total of £17.4 billion as part of its plans to make the Lower Saxony region Germany’s centre for electric car construction. 

In addition to the ID.4, Emden will make another model – known internally a the AERO B2 – next year. Unlike the ID.4, the AERO will be a traditional saloon and is pitched directly against the best-selling Tesla Model 3. In addition, production of the new ID. Buzz will start at Volkswagen’s commercial vehicle plant in Hanover. It will be joined from 2023 on by the ID.3 made in Wolfsburg, while a further electric vehicle – the Trinity3 – will then roll off the assembly line at the location starting in 2026. 

The Group is also investing in Braunschweig, Salzgitter and Kassel to expand production of battery systems, rotors/stators and electric motors. The Salzgitter location is being expanded further into a European battery hub.

How many Volkswagen employees does it take to change a lightbulb? We don't know, but it takes this many to build an ID.4 at the brand's new Emden factory in Germany