Volkswagen will spend nearly $2.2 billion to set up a plant near its world headquarters to produce its new battery-electric flagship vehicle, codenamed Project Trinity.
The plant in Wolfsburg, Germany will provide a blueprint for other plants to come as VW shifts from internal combustion engines to battery-electric propulsion. The German automaker expects to break ground on the new factory next year, with vehicles set to begin rolling off the assembly line in 2026.
The project “is an important milestone for the transformation of our brand and the future of the Wolfsburg production facility,” Volkswagen brand CEO Ralf Brandstätter said in a statement. “We are thus strengthening and sustaining the competitiveness of the main plant and giving the workforce a robust long-term perspective.”
VW’s big BEV plans
No automaker has laid out a more aggressive — or expensive — electrification strategy than the Volkswagen Group. It plans to spend more than $100 billion this decade through brands as diverse as entry-level Skoda to premium marques, such as Lamborghini. Several, including Bentley and Audi, have now announced that they will go 100% electric before the end of the decade.
While the VW brand has not confirmed that as an end game, it is clearly moving in that direction as it rolls out a series of battery-electric vehicles. The next up is the ID.Buzz, an all-electric take on the classic Volkswagen Microbus. It will be unveiled in production form later this week.
Most of the VW-branded BEVs will be based on the modular MEB architecture that already underpins the ID.4 crossover. The Project Trinity project, however, is working with the entirely new SSP architecture, short for Scalable Systems Platform.
Project Trinity
The automaker hasn’t said much about Trinity, though it did indicate it would get 700 kilometers, or about 434 miles, of range per charge using the WLTP European test cycle. VW also has indicated it could come equipped with a Level 4 autonomous driving system. That would allow the production version to operate entirely without a driver, albeit in specifically delineated — or geo-fenced — areas.
Trinity is expected to take the place of the current Arteon model as the brand’s flagship. While a rendering released by VW shows a sleek, coupe-like shape, with a distinctive, fastback-style roofline, it’s not clear if Trinity will be a coupe-sedan or coupe-crossover.
The new SSP platform will be shared with other brands, including Audi and possibly Porsche. VW has plans to eventually produce 40 million vehicles off the new architecture.
New approach to manufacturing
A key challenge for the team developing the all-electric architecture was to simplify the production process. VW expects to require no more than 10 manhours of labor for each vehicle, barely half of what’s needed for a typical automobile today.
“We are focusing on innovative and sustainable manufacturing concepts,” explained Christian Vollmer, the VW board member overseeing manufacturing. The facility “gives us the opportunity to make the existing factory fit for the future, step-by-step and from top to bottom,” he added. “This is how Wolfsburg will become the yardstick for innovative production concepts — for Volkswagen and the entire industry.”
In general, BEVs are expected to require less labor than a conventional gas or diesel model, particularly when it comes to the powertrain. For one thing, much of the work assembling battery packs and motors can be done with robots.
Backlash
That has created significant backlash inside VW, primarily from its traditionally militant German labor union IG Metall. Representative sitting on the carmaker’s management board have pressed for the ouster of Group CEO Herbert Diess, an active proponent of electrification. But Diess has so far retained the support of VW’s founding Piech and Porsche families which have a dominant say in the company’s direction.
The new plant will be located near Hall 54, the historic center of Volkswagen’s global manufacturing empire. The automaker debuted its first vehicle, the original Beetle, in Wolfsburg prior to the start of the Second World War.