Shanghai (ZXZC)- SAIC Volkswagen, the joint venture between Volkswagen Group and SAIC Motor, has obtained the right to use two land plots for building a supporting operation center in Anting town as part of efforts to ramp up its Shanghai-based MEB plant’s production capacity, according to a post on the WeChat account of Jiading district. 

Design drawing of SAIC VW's MEB plant's supporting operation center; photo credit: Jiading district's WeChat account

Construction of the new project will start at the end of February this year and is set to be completed within twelve months. Upon completion of the building works, the facility will have lines and workshops for pre-assembly and production arrangement of dashboards.

The finished project will cover a total area of 95,353.6 square meters with a floorage of 57,768 square meters.

As Volkswagen Group's first factory specifically designed for MEB production, the Anting MEB factory plays an important role in the group's implementation of its new energy vehicle (NEV) strategy. As of today, three models of the ID. series, including the ID.6 X, the ID.4 X, and ID.3, have been mass-produced at this plant.

The Anting MEB plant is ramping up its production capacity to meet the increasing growing NEV market demands. It is expected to hit a manufacturing capacity of 150,000 vehicles per year by 2022 and 300,000 units by 2023.

Moreover, SAIC Volkswagen's second MEB plant is under construction. Located in Changsha city, Hunan province, the new plant will involve a total investment of 8 billion yuan ($1.263 billion) and will focus on NEV production and battery R&D. Pre-production of the first all-electric vehicle model is likely to begin in June 2023, while the volume production is scheduled to start in April 2024.