Zwickau celebrates: One million electric cars from the Volkswagen factory!

Zwickau celebrates: One million electric cars from the Volkswagen factory!

A significant milestone has been reached at the Volkswagen plant in Zwickau: the one millionth electric vehicle has left the production line. The ceremonial handover took place in the presence of the workforce and company management and was acknowledged by Danny Auerswald, CEO of Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH. Auerswald praised the employees for their excellent performance, as the models were delivered on time, reliably and in high quality. These production capacities are crucial because almost every second electric car registered by the Volkswagen Group comes from Zwickau, making the plant a central location for electromobility.

“The location agreement for the vehicle factory is crucial to ensuring our competitiveness,” emphasized Auerswald. In order to keep this competitive, options in the circular economy are currently being examined in order to expand Zwickau into a strategic mainstay in this area.

Transformation to electromobility

Zwickau has undergone a remarkable transformation. It was the first plant to completely convert from combustion engines to electric mobility. The changeover was completed on June 26, 2020, when the last combustion vehicle rolled off the assembly line. The start of production of the ID.3 on November 4, 2019 marked the beginning of this new era in Zwickau. Since then, a total of six vehicle launches have been successfully implemented in just 26 months. In January 2022, the complete conversion to a purely electric multi-brand location was completed with the ID.5.

In 2024, 204,000 vehicles were produced in Zwickau, and to date, 2.3 million vehicles based on the MEB platform have been delivered across all Group brands. This impressively shows the performance and innovative strength of the location. Uwe Kunstmann, chairman of the general works council, also received praise, thanking the workforce for their tireless efforts.

Looking into the future

Looking ahead, the factory will change in the second half of 2026 as models are scheduled to be delivered to other locations. However, Zwickau still sees great opportunities in the area of ​​circular economy. In addition to electric cars, Zwickau also produces bodies for high-quality models such as the Bentley Bentayga and the Lamborghini Urus. The extensive conversion to electromobility cost Volkswagen around 1.2 billion euros, which illustrates the long-term investment in this location.

Volkswagen Group has also established itself as the market leader for fully electric vehicles in Europe, with a market share of around 26 percent in the first quarter of 2025. The storied past of the plant, which has existed since 1904 and also included the production of the iconic Trabant, illustrates the tradition and future technologies that go hand in hand in Zwickau.

For more information on this topic, readers can visit the articles German business news and in Volkswagen Newsroom read up.