VW Readying Two Chinese Plants To Accelerate EV Production

Volkswagen has ambitious production targets for its new range of electric vehicles and will construct many of them in China, Reuters reports.

Info from within the German carmaker reveal that it is readying two Chinese factories to begin building electric vehicles next year with a combined annual production capacity of 600,000 vehicles. These sites, located in Anting and Foshun, already have established workforces which will help the car manufacturer to aggressively ramp up production when the sites are ready.

Volkswagen’s size will make it much easier to industrialize EV production faster than rivals like Tesla which is still ramping up production to 500,000 cars a year through the construction of a new facility in Shanghai, China.

Also Read: VW Names Its North American Electric SUV ID.4, Brings Prototype To Frankfurt

“The truth is barriers to entry in autos remain high,” Bernstein Research analyst Max Warburton said. “Making cars is hard. The move to electric vehicles will be expensive, but will probably be led by traditional manufacturers.”

The German car manufacturer is re-tooling many of its major production facilities as part of a $33 billion investment push into e-mobility by 2023. This will see VW’s Hanover and Zwickau sites in Germany converted to build electric vehicles, while the aforementioned Anting and Foshun sites in China are also being re-tooled with joint venture partners FAW and SAIC respectively. Other plants being re-tooled include Emden and Dresden in Germany, Mlada Boleslav in the Czech Republic, and Chattanooga in the United States. The Volkswagen Group is expected to be the number one electric vehicle manufacturer in the world by 2025.