On August 13th, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Volkswagen will continue to expand its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA.
Previously, the purpose of the expansion was mainly to establish a North American assembly line for pure electric vehicles. Now, Volkswagen aims to establish a center for the construction and planning of purely electric vehicles. This center will have a high-voltage lab mainly used for the development and testing of power batteries.
In the current new energy market, many car companies outsource their battery research and development work to other companies. As one of the world’s automotive giants, Volkswagen has resolutely chosen to self-develop and test. Technically speaking, Volkswagen must master the core technology in order to better adapt to the changes in the future new energy market, especially when sales increase in the future, self-development will reduce a lot of costs.
Regarding this laboratory, Volkswagen said that it will be fully operational in the spring of 2021 and will introduce a series of advanced equipment, including pressure testers, explosion-proof constant temperature boxes, and customized multi-axis vibration tables (MAST), which are used to test the durability of battery packs in various environments.
In addition, Volkswagen has invested $800 million in expanding the ID.4 assembly line for pure electric vehicles at the Chattanooga factory. This factory will be used for production of the ID.4 in the future.
It is clear that after Volkswagen has made the determination to transition to electrification, the pace of its actions has also accelerated, eagerly anticipating the arrival of the ID.4.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.