For more than two years, KUKA has been working with the Volkswagen automotive group in Zwickau on the fully electric vehicles ID.3, ID.4 and further models. It was recently announced that the ID.4 will now go into series production. For the more than 1,700 KUKA robots in Zwickau, some of which are on linear traversing axes of the type KL 4000, this means a lot of work.
KUKA robots also provide support in Volkswagen battery production
The KUKA robots are used in body-in-white production as well as assembly in Zwickau. For the most part,
KR QUANTEC and
KR FORTEC robots are at work in the plant, however,
LBR iiwa robots are also involved. KUKA robots have also contributed to the scalable battery system of the Modular Electric Propulsion (MEB) vehicles – which can achieve a range of over 500 kilometers and are manufactured at the site in Braunschweig. “We are delighted to be part of Germany’s first purely electric automobile factory.
Together with Volkswagen, we are working to drive electromobility and the future of the automotive industry forward,” says Peter Mohnen, CEO of KUKA AG.
Purely electric production in Zwickau since July 2020
Up to the middle of this year, the Volkswagen model Golf Variant with an internal combustion engine was also manufactured in Zwickau.
Those days are over. From now on, only electric vehicles will roll off the conveyor. Thanks to an investment of 1.2 billion euro, the plant will be completely converted to electromobility by the end of the year. In 2021, the first year of fully electric production, around 300,000 electric cars based on Modular Electric Propulsion (MEB) are to be produced in Zwickau. From 2022 onwards, up to 330,000 units per year are to be achieved. But production in Zwickau is not just to be limited to the ID.3, that is already available to customers, and the new ID.4: the plant is set up for a total of six different electric models from Volkswagen, Audi and Seat.
