FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen Group's commercial vehicles unit has used the summer break to remodel its manufacturing plant in Hanover, Germany, to build the retro-styled ID Buzz battery-powered minivan.
The ID Buzz is a modern-day, zero emissions reboot of VW's Microbus.
It is due to launch in 2020 and will join VW's growing lineup of full-electric cars based on the new MEB platform that includes the ID3 and ID4. The ID Buzz is expected to be offered in commercial and passenger variants with Level 3 self-driving technology.
VW unveiled its ID Buzz concept van in 2017.
The Hanover factory has also undergone remodeling to build the latest version of VW's Multivan, which will be offered with combustion and hybrid powertrains, and is due next year.
As part of the overhaul, VW said that employees had completed over 500 modernization and maintenance tasks that included setting up new machines or integrating the new models into existing processes.
Currently, the plant builds combustion-powered variants of the T6.1 Transporter van.
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Work carried out during the summer includes:
- Disassembling machinery in the body shop, paint shop and assembly facility formerly used to build the Amarok pickup truck. The area will now be used to build the ID Buzz. The Amarok is no longer built in Hanover and its successor will be developed by Ford as part of a partnership with VW that is expected to cover commercial vehicles, autonomous driving, mobility services and electrification.
- by Ford
- Construction of machinery for the new Multivan in the body shop, paint shop and production assembly facility.
- Disassembling and modernizing the press line.
- Adapting the paint shop conveyor system to integrate the new vehicles.
- Constructing a new bi-color painting facility for the new models.
- Additionally, changes were made to assembly operations to cater for the T6.1 Transporter and its T7 successor (due in 2021), which will be built together on the same production lines.
In total, the modernization took a total of four weeks from the last week of July and included a three-week break in production and another further week with a reduced level of production.
