Volkswagen has started operation of its first wholly-owned battery pack production plant in China’s eastern Anhui province, called Volkswagen (Anhui) Components Co., Ltd. (VWAC), the government informed. The German automaker has invested a total of 1.5 billion yuan (USD 208.01 million) in the battery plant. The plant covers an area of 45,000 square meters and sits next to the production facilities of the company in Anhui. It has an initial annual production capacity of 150,000 to 180,000 high-voltage battery systems.
The high-voltage battery systems that are being produced at the plant are crucial component for Volkswagen Anhui’s Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB) electric vehicle production. The beginning of the plant also marks the latest milestone in the Volkswagen Group’s strategic development of Hefei as a high-tech intelligent connected vehicles hub.
The plant locally sources 96% of the components required for battery production. “With the first high-voltage battery system rolling off the production line at VWAC, Volkswagen Group Components China has shown its dedication to locally developing and producing top-notch backbone components for our electric vehicles,” Olaf Korzinovski, executive vice president of Volkswagen Group China told Xinhua.
What is Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB) platform?
Volkswagen plans to begin mass-production of pure electric models based on the MEB platform in the new factory by the end of 2023. It is the company’s EV platform on which the models of the future I.D. family are currently being developed. These are fully electric vehicles that can reach ranges of up to 500 km and more.