[AutoConsultant]

VW's Wolfsburg Plant and Autostadt

Background
Like most of us during these Covid times, I have been reminiscing about my past travels. While going through the archives, I found a few photos which I felt should be definitely shared with my fellow BHPians. I’ll try to add a little bit of context as well to the pictures.

The Story
It was 2017 when I was backpacking through Europe Actually I was on a student exchange program in France during my MBA. Due to a change in my travel plans I had 1 free day and I thought what could be an interesting auto-related thing I could do (I had already been the the Merc and BMW Museums). I knew that VW has its largest plant in Wolfsburg, Germany so I checked out what kind of activities could be done there. So they have something called Autostadt which has the following key attractions :-

• Zeithaus – A collection of iconic vehicles which have set standards and served as models for others
• Car Towers – The famous fully-automated parking towers at VW’s factory
• Customer Center - With up to 500 deliveries per day, the Autostadt is the largest delivery center for new cars in the world
• Factory Tour – Having worked/interned at a couple of automobile manufacturing plants, I was keen on having a look at the workings of world’s largest auto manufacturing plant

Zeithaus
This was just a totally unexpected but overwhelming experience. This section had one main building which had a collection of cars which had started trends in automotive history. The key highlights were the Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, Lamborghini Countach and a VW van.

Then they had other smaller buildings which covered the VW group companies – Audi, Lamborghini, Seat etc
















The man behind Eldorado’s design


The iconic tail fins










The Audi E-Tron concept


A ball that acted as a tour guide!


A Lambo on a wall


A wall full of OVRMs



Car Towers
This was straight out of a sci-fi movie. Basically these are two giant glass towers where cars manufactured at the plant are parked before delivery to the customer. It is fully automated. I also opted for a tour where you get to experience first hand how the system works. Please do check out the videos below, it is just fascinating.





Car coming from factory into the parking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf2wOdkCbik

Our little Pod for the tour up and down the tower

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxcBeuPG_bo

Car going from the Parking to the Customer Center

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMf0hYx8ERc

Factory Tour
They had a kind of modern-day chariot being pulled by an e-Golf with a capacity of about 20. We were ferried around through out the plant and my god it was massive. The levels of automation in the manufacturing process were also commendable.





Customer Center
Although I don’t have any photos of this but I was just fascinated by the concept. So they have created kind of a company-owned dealership right at the plant so that customers can collect their cars straight out of the manufacturing line. It’s like getting your bread straight out of the factory oven rather than buying it from a grocery store. So the car after being manufactured moves to the Car Towers and is them brought to the Customer Center for delivery.
I thought the concept is nice but how many would actually put in the effort to do it? To my surprise, every 3rd VW car delivered in Germany is collected from this Customer Center! Talk about being an auto-enthusiast nation

Felt it was a unique experience and worth sharing. That’s all folks!

[viXit]

I am so jealous of you!!

It's been my dream to visit this place someday!

Along with being the largest delivery zone for new cars, it's the only place iirc that let's owners drive their cars off with 0 kms on the odo, straight from the assembly line!!

For everyone interested, there is an amazing documentary on this factory dwelling on it's history, workings and marvels on hotstar!

https://www.hotstar.com/in/tv/supers...ant/1000239359

[bivin]

Beautiful.

Last time I was there about 8 years ago, the Lambo on the wall was a Murcielago LP640. I wish the Countach Periscopio was there when i went. I think they look far more elegant than the later models with the crazy wheel arches and wings.
In fact, the rear wheel arch on that car, for me is THE most beautiful of any car ever.

Cheers

[SJM1214]

Wow. This is interesting. thanks for the excellent write-up and amazing pics.

[Drive Head]

How much I wish, we could pick-up cars directly from the factory here in India. Would be a great feeling, driving down the kms one by one and straight to home.