A good 110 years ago in Zwickau the first Audi saw the light of day – now the company is returning to its place of origin. This week starts in the Saxon Volkswagen-Fabrik starts production of the Eletro-SUV Q4 E-Tron, another Audi model, the Q4 Sportback, is to be added in the summer.
The new car factory with around 9,000 employees on the outskirts of Zwickau has become the most important factory for Volkswagen Electric cars developed in Germany. To do this, it was converted for around 1.2 billion euros. So far, the fully electric models ID.3 and ID.4 have been built there. With the new Audi, the location is now becoming a multi-brand plant. This year, the production of further models from Volkswagen, Audi and Seat is to start. The Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Sachsen, Stefan Loth, has set 1,400 vehicles per working day as the target. It should be so far in summer.
An Audi spokeswoman did not want to provide any information on the planned number of units of the new, compact electric SUV from Saxony. The start of sales is planned after the premiere in the second half of April. According to its own information, the company already builds fully electric cars at locations in Brussels and near Neckarsulm; In the coming year, a purely electric model will also be produced at the main plant in Ingolstadt, which will run on a jointly with Porsche manufactured platform is to be built.
The return from Audi to Zwickau is “good news for Saxony – and for Audi,” says Minister of Economic Affairs Martin Dulig (47, SPD). He also refers to the works of Porsche and BMW in Leipzig. “With the locations in Zwickau, Leipzig and Dresden, Saxony is developing into the number 1 electric car production location in Germany.” The industry also benefits from the proximity to the cluster for microelectronics and IT. In addition to electric drives, Saxony also relies on hydrogen, emphasizes Dulig: “Here, too, we want to be among the leaders.”
Saxony’s long automobile tradition
“Zwickau and the Audi brand have a long tradition,” says Production Board Member Peter Kössler (61). This goes back to the engineer August Horch (1868-1951) who founded the company in Zwickau in 1909, which was renamed Audi a year later. After the merger with other Saxon vehicle manufacturers in 1932, four rings became the trademark of Auto Union, which rose to become the second largest car company in what was then the German Empire Opel, as the manager of the August Horch Museum, Thomas Stebich, explains. After the Second World War, the board of directors and some engineers re-founded the company in Ingolstadt, and numerous skilled workers followed across the still open border to West Germany. In Zwickau, the Trabant was later built on the former company premises.