Volkswagen factory has made 1m EVs: lots of buzz about IDs after all

We're talking a lot about the slowdown of EV sales at the moment, but here's some buzz about plug-in vehicles: Volkswagen's Zwickau factory has just produced its millionth pure-electric model, 5-and-half years after it began the switch from combustion to electric.

The plant currently builds VW's ID.3, ID.4 and ID.5 models, as well as the Audi Q4 e-tron and Cupra Born. The millionth car was an ID.3 GTX Performance in Kings Red Metallic. It's being delivered to a customer in the coming weeks.

Formerly an Auto Union facility, the east-German site was home to Trabant production in the model's heyday (with a licensed VW engine at the end of its model life), but following the reunification of Germany in 1990 Zwickau facilities were devoted to VW production: first Polo, then Golf and Passat.

The plant produced its first pure-electric ID model in 2019 and since June 26, 2020 (the day the last combustion-engine car left the line) it has been devoted to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) across several VW Group brands - including the Audi Q4 e-tron, the first time the 4-ringed brand has produced cars at Zwickau since before the Second World War. 

VW spent 1.2 billion euros converting the plant to pure-electric vehicles. To date, 2.3m MEB (VW ubiquitous EV platform) models have been delivered to customers worldwide, which means that almost every second electric car registered from the Group comes from Zwickau.