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November 27, 2020 03:26 AM

VW's EV boss discusses the move to electrification

Frank Johannsen
Automobilwoche
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    VW's electric mobility board member, Thomas Ulbrich, with an ID wall charger.

    Thomas Ulbrich, Volkswagen Group's e-mobility boss, has spent two years overseeing VW's move to electrification. Ulbrich discussed the challenges of refitting eight of the automaker's global plants to build full-electric cars and the production advantages of the MEB platform in an interview with Automobilwoche, a German-language sister publication of Automotive News Europe,

    You have just completely converted the Zwickau, Germany, plant to build EVs. Did the conversion sometimes cause you sleepless nights?

    The ID3 [compact electric hatchback] has indeed kept me busy every day for more than two years, often late into the night and even on weekends. This is quite a special project, even for someone like me with 30 years of experience in automobile production. It is not just a normal model change. It is the complete transformation of an entire plant from combustion to electric. It's the first time in the world that an established manufacturer has completely transformed an existing plant. At the same time, it provides important experience for the other Volkswagen electric-car locations, which are now also being converted step by step.

    What are the challenges?

    In Zwickau we have 8,000 employees who will work directly or indirectly on MEB-based vehicles in the future. Qualifying them was a huge effort. It starts with high-voltage technology and continues with the new electronics architecture. We converted the plant virtually during ongoing operations. In one half of the plant, we were still building full numbers of combustion engines when we started with the electric vehicles in the other half. But in the end, everything worked despite the enormous challenges that the coronavirus pandemic demands of all of us. Production is up and running. In October we also completed the conversion of the second assembly line, all in less than 20 weeks.

    Is it sad when a plant stops producing combustion-engine vehicles?

    It was a moving moment when we celebrated the end of the Golf's production at Zwickau, with a small ceremony in June. This is now the second major transformation for the plant. Where the Trabant once rattled around 30 years ago, the electrified ID family is now rolling off the assembly line. This also marks the start of a new automotive era. Zwickau is the first plant to leave the world of combustion engines completely and switch completely to electric. This is a huge opportunity for the site. And the employees are highly motivated to help shape this change.

    Electric car production is said to be up to 20 percent more efficient than with combustion-engine models. How will you achieve this?

    We owe this primarily to the modular e-drive system [MEB]. It was designed for high volumes right from the start. Even at the development stage, we designed the platform in such a way that we have far-reaching synergies through identical parts for different vehicles and different models. This time, we made sure that the concept of the bodies was identical across all brands, so that we had sufficiently differentiated vehicles in terms of design, but which we could still build on one assembly line. In Zwickau, a total of six models from three VW Group brands will roll off the assembly line by the end of 2021.

    Will there be more automation?

    We have put everything that technology currently offers into operations in Zwickau. The complete rebuild gave us the opportunity to design the production of the new full-electric ID family in such a way that a higher degree of mechanization is possible. Automation in assembly is not particularly so high yet. We have now significantly increased this for MEB-based cars.

    Do you still intend to keep all 8,000 employees in Zwickau?

    In Zwickau, we have issued a guarantee of employment until 2029. We also feel obliged to do so. There will be a natural fluctuation along the much-cited demographic curve, because year after year employees will retire. However, our concept is that we will definitely employ the remaining workforce.


    How will you manage this?

    We have built a new press shop in Zwickau, for example, where pressed parts that used to be supplied from other locations are now produced locally in Saxony, and thus create work. We have also increased general production capacity. This means that higher productivity will enable us to utilize employment at the site to the full. This shows that the fundamental change towards e-mobility is not necessarily about job cuts, but the exact opposite: We are securing the future.
     

    VW's ID3 hatchback (left) and ID4 crossover.

    How will the development at the other locations continue?

    The two plants in China, Anting and Foshan, will start up this year. The same applies to Skoda's production in Mlada Boleslav in the Czech Republic. Dresden in Germany will follow at the beginning of 2021, Emden and Hanover, aso in Germany, in 2022. In the second half of 2022, Chattanooga will also start up in the U.S.

    What volume will you be able to achieve once all the sites are up and running?

    Our goal is to build 1 million EVs for the Volkswagen brand alone in 2023 and to achieve global output of 1.5 million by 2025. The MEB-based vehicles of the other group brands will then be added. We assume that we will achieve this ambitious strategic goal based on the current political provisions. And we are convinced that the market will also be able to absorb this volume.

    What makes you so sure?

    Since our decision to switch production, the entire environment for e-mobility has developed extremely positively. From customer interest to the political framework conditions throughout Europe. This shows us that we were right from the start with our strategy. It is now important to have the right products for this. Which, in addition to the ID3, is also the ID4 SUV, which was launched globally in September and will be the actual volume model and our first global car to be produced simultaneously on three continents.

    What makes the ID4 so important?

    It is particularly important at the start of our electric offensive that we serve the volume segments. That's the best way to achieve economies of scale and make full use of our plants. And the ID4 will be our volume driver, which, with 500,000 units, will account for a third of our global EV sales in 2025. As an SUV, the ID4 is fully in line with the trend, and the body shape is in demand worldwide. This is why we are building the vehicle not only in Zwickau, but also in China, the USA and, from 2022, in Emden.

    VW has already announced the ID5 as a coupe-styled variant of the ID4. Will that be your second global EV?

    It is still be too early to comment on that. It's not currently planned. Worldwide, the basic model is coming first, and that is the ID4. Nevertheless, we do, of course, have other options.

    FOCUS ON ELECTRIFICATION NEWSLETTER: A monthly wrap-up of the latest electric vehicle news, including interviews and global EV sales data, delivered to your inbox.
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