Wolfsburg, Germany
The Wolfsburg plant is one of the largest and most advanced car factories in the world as well as the headquarters of the Volkswagen Group, and is located in North Germany.
The 5 square kilometre factory has some of the most sophisticated and innovative vehicle manufacturing facilities anywhere, including the largest state-of-the-art paint shop in Europe, the first to use eco-friendly water based paints. At Wolfsburg, Volkswagen employs a unique combination of automation and human skill in a system so effective that each new Volkswagen car, with millions of possible design variations, can be built to each customer's individual preferences. While no two Volkswagen cars are exactly alike, every one of them comes with Volkswagen's legendary reliability.
Press Shop
The press shop at Wolfsburg processes 1,500 metric tonnes of sheet metal every day, that's enough freight to fill thirty specially designed railways cars. Here the sheet metal is cut and pre-stamped into special plates and is then fully galavinised. Volkswagen have increased capacity in this area so that now 160 of today's presses have a greater capacity than nearly 400 presses had just 20 years ago.
Body Shop
The body shop is next in the production process. Volkswagen have invested in new and flexible technologies to create the best possible conditions for car manufacturing in the future. The plant can now react quicker to customers wants, the increasing variety of models, marketplace fluctuations or model changes. Various models can be built right after one another on the same line with no major modifications or delay.
Paint Shop
The results achieved in the paint shop are a shining example of a philosophy to attain supreme quality in every step of the production process. After an intensive pre-treatment with all seams, folds and joints sealed, each car goes through to have sealants, colour and protective layers applied.
Assembly Line
After the body and paint shop comes the assembly line, where engines and features are brought together in precise configurations. After assembly, rigorous measurements, final adjustments and performance tests are carried out to ensure the quality customers expect from Volkswagen.
Tours
The factory in Wolfsburg is open to the public and are available every working day from Tuesday to Friday. The tour lasts for two hours. For enquires please contact Autostadt for more information. All contact details are contained within the Autostadt page.
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