AWhen the wall fell in 1989, Jörg Hohmuth worked in the state-owned production of cardan shafts for Saxon vehicle construction. After German unification, he started at Volkswagen. At that time, Germany’s largest automobile group opened a new plant in Zwickau. Hohmuth knows a thing or two about system breaks, and he is right in the middle of it again. And this time he organizes it himself.
In November 2019, production of the first completely newly developed VW electric car, the ID.3, began in Hall 5 of the Volkswagen plant. Volkswagen, the world’s leading automobile manufacturer, wants to take the step into electromobility with the series. Whether this is successful is decided here in southern Saxony. Hohmuth and his team are responsible for adjusting the body production in the factory. This brings with it a number of innovations in the production process – above all even more automation.
The number of robots in the body shop increases from 1200 to 1600, the degree of automation from 85 to 91 percent. “A few years ago, 25 people worked here per shift, now nine,” says Hohmuth. “Many of my colleagues were initially surprised at how radically the realignment is planned. However, most employees now recognize that this makes sense and is necessary. “
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By the start of delivery throughout Europe in summer, Volkswagen plans to build a total of around 50,000 ID.3s and install the necessary software for the complex computer systems on board. The daily production is increased regularly, currently it is 70 vehicles.
Reinhard de Vries, managing director of the plant for technology and logistics, is right on schedule. He contradicts claims that the software is causing Volkswagen problems: “It is only recently installed in the then current version, similar to smartphones.”
If German manufacturers want to remain marketable, they have to move away from classic combustion engines – be it with battery-electric drives, with hydrogen fuel cells or with piston engines for synthetic fuels.
Sales of electric cars in Europe are expected to increase significantly by 2030
Volkswagen initially relies entirely on battery-electric drives. The subsidiary Porsche is just launching its first pure electric car, the newly developed Taycan.
Volkswagen has created the ID.3 for mass business. Models for the group brands Audi, Škoda and Seat are also built on its platform. By 2030, Volkswagen plans to increase sales of electric cars in its core markets such as Europe to 40 percent – from the current 1.3 percent that the group has achieved with “electrified” combustion models such as the Golf. The electrical offensive has top priority. CEO Herbert Diess said at the management conference in mid-January in Berlin: “The ID.3 has to be on the road.”
Volkswagen, like all classic car manufacturers, puts this in a difficult position. Less staff is needed to build electric cars than to build petrol and diesel models. An electric drivetrain has far fewer components than a modern piston engine with clutch, gearbox and exhaust system.
A working group from the National Platform for the Future of Mobility presented calculations in January that, depending on the product mix, the expansion of electromobility could result in 79,000 to 88,000 jobs being lost in the production of drive trains by 2030 alone. That would correspond to about ten percent of all employees in the German automotive industry today.
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Zwickau is to become Volkswagen’s first global center of excellence for electric mobility. The later Volkswagen subsidiary Audi was founded at the traditional location at the beginning of the 20th century. During the GDR era, VEB Sachsenring built the Trabant.
With currently around 8,000 employees and a production capacity of 300,000 cars a year, Zwickau is exactly the right size for the development of ID.3 production from the perspective of the group management. Volkswagen has been preparing the switch on site since 2016. The last combustion engine still being built in Zwickau, the Golf 7 Variant, will expire in the middle of the year.
Volkswagen will only be able to maintain the number of jobs in Zwickau in the coming years if production increases significantly. Instead of three combustion engines to date, the plant will in future produce six electric models. The capacity is expanded to around 330,000 vehicles a year – also thanks to even more robot work. “As a result of the realignment of production, the level of automation on the ID.3 platform increases to 28 percent, from around 17 percent in the previous models,” says Holger Hollmann, who heads the work in Hall 5.
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This can already be seen, for example when installing the cockpits: Workers assemble the control unit of the vehicle on an assembly line using an electromechanical lifting unit. A few meters behind, a new robot is already deploying the cockpits fully automatically.
Production in Zwickau is currently “the largest training camp at Volkswagen,” says manager Patrick Hofbauer, who coordinates the training and further education of the staff. Around 3,000 employees receive special training on the assembly of electrical elements, for example on the numerous connector systems that are now being processed. 1500 workers are to acquire a “high-voltage driver’s license” so that the complex electrical system of the ID.3 and its sister models can be assembled without an accident.
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But it’s not just about production. The employees must also be mentally adjusted to the new era. “Many are unsure whether electromobility actually works,” says Ricardo Schönherr, who heads the program.
All assembly workers will go through it, instructed by specially trained colleagues. In specially equipped rooms, they use teams to inform themselves about the history of the automotive industry in a playful manner. They also learn that the first electric vehicles were developed in the middle of the 19th century. No one spoke of gasoline or diesel engines at that time.
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