Currently reading: Volkswagen retraining Wolfsburg staff to produce new electric SUV

Factory’s output of the updated ID 3 hatchback will hit full volumes by mid-2024; SUV arriving by 2026

Volkswagen has announced it will retrain 22,000 workers at its Wolfsburg plant by 2025, preparing them for the addition of electric vehicles to the factory’s production line.

By summer 2023, around 1200 employees will have been trained to build the heavily updated Volkswagen ID 3 electric hatchback (pictured below), ahead of production beginning in autumn. This will initially be in limited capacity – referred to as “subassembly” in an official Volkswagen statement – before escalating to “substantial numbers” in 2024.

Wolfsburg will also host production of a new electric SUV (also based on the ID 3’s MEB platform) “in the near future”, said the statement.

Autocar previously reported that Volkswagen brand CEO Thomas Schäfer had signed off development of an ID 3-based crossover to give the firm another product in the “fast-growing” small SUV segment.

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