CAPTION: VW pushes platform business - new logistics center in Eastern Germany. (picture alliance/dpa)
The German carmaker Volkswagen is pushing ahead with its cooperation with Ford and plans to put a new logistics hall into operation in Meerane (in the Zwickau district of the eastern German state of Saxony) for this purpose at the beginning of 2023. The background is that VW plans to supply platforms for e-cars for at least two Ford models in the future. The company is thus entering new territory, said Ludwig Fazel, head of Volkswagen's Platform Business division, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new hall. "We will move from being just a manufacturer to also being a supplier." Ford will not remain the only customer, and talks are underway with other companies, Fazel emphasized.
Components of Volkswagen's MEB mobile electric modular system will be bundled in the new hall and then delivered to Ford in Cologne; other components will be delivered there directly from Braunschweig and Kassel. The Meerane site was chosen because of its proximity to the Volkswagen car factory in Zwickau, which is a pioneer for the production of e-cars at the carmaker. This would allow existing logistics routes to be used, Fazel explained. The investor for the hall is real estate developer Meta-Werk, which is leasing it to Volkswagen. There is talk of 35 million euros in investment and about 120 new jobs. Volkswagen already operates an axle assembly plant in the industrial park in Meerane.
The US automaker Ford had recently announced that it would invest two billion dollars (1.8 billion euros) at the Cologne site to launch two e-models. The first is to be sold from 2023. The kit for both models is to be supplied by Volkswagen. There is talk of 1.2 million vehicles within six years. The companies are currently in talks about a third vehicle, Fazel said.
Officials in the state of Saxony have voiced their satisfaction about the project: "The East is once again supplying the West," Meerane's Mayor Lothar Ungerer (an independent politician) emphasized. "The Zwickau region is an important cog in the wheel of the German and European automotive industry," said the state’s Economics Minister Martin Dulig, a member of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), in a statement.
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