SAIC Volkswagen sees groundbreaking of NEV plant in Anting, Shanghai

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On October 19, SAIC Volkswagen (SAIC VW)'s NEV (new energy vehicle) plant started construction in Anting Town of Shanghai's Jiading District. Involving a total investment of RMB17 billion, the new NEV plant will be put into operation in 2020 with a planned annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles.

Covering an overall floorage of around 610,000 square meters, the Anting NEV plant is SAIC VW's first assembly line that specializes in manufacturing the MEB platform-based BEVs (battery electric vehicles). Inspired by the German Industrie 4.0 Strategy, the new plant will be outfitted with the cutting-edge production and automation technologies to substantially enhance the labor productivity and manufacturing efficiency. The automaker said the NEV plant will deploy over 1,400 units of industrial robots, among which 1,000 robots will work at the body workshop.

The NEV plant is set to produce the MEB platform-based BEV models under such brands as Audi, Volkswagen and Skoda. Apart from the BEV production, the construction of a battery pack assembly line will be implemented simultaneously.

The MEB platform (German: Modularer Elektrobaukasten) is the world's first modular car platform for BEVs developed by Volkswagen Group and its subsidiaries. The vehicles developed on this platform boast such merits as the shorter front overhang over the rear overhang, the more spacious driver's and back-row passenger room as well as more capacious trunk.

According to the planning, the capacity for the MEB platform will reach 1 million BEVs per year until 2025. The platform will be introduced in China and realize locally production from 2020. From 2020 to 2022, there will be 8 MEB platform-based models domestically produced in China and another 3 new models is expected to be imported into this country.