Volkswagen to retrain Wolfsburg employees to build EV

Volkswagen shared that it will be re-training its Wolfsburg-based employees in line with its plan to transform its facility into an electric vehicle (EV) factory over the next few years.

This year, Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg factory will begin production of the ID.3, which is based on the modular electric drive (MEB) platform. From June to September, Volkswagen will be training around 1,200 of its employees in the said plant for ID.3 production.

Further, Volkswagen plans to build more EV models in its Wolfsburg factory next year.

“The new production line in Wolfsburg will give us more flexibility than ever before. The assembly line will be the first at one of the Volkswagen brand’s passenger car plants in Germany that is able to build both MEB and ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles on the same line. With the future SSP (Scalable Systems Platform) platform, this will make Wolfsburg Volkswagen’s first multi-platform factory a few years from now. That will give the main plant a major advantage in terms of capacity utilization over the next ten years. It is how we are safeguarding jobs at the Wolfsburg plant and giving our workforce a clear perspective for the future,” said Volkswagen Wolfsburg Plant Manager Rainer Fessel.

The new production line for the ID.3 and the new Tiguan will be installed over the coming months. An initial €460 million (P27.029 billion) is being invested through early 2025.

Volkswagen also revealed that to help its people transition from building ICE vehicles to electric ones, the carmaker is staging a one-day training program for its production employees. Dubbed eMotionDay, participants will complete interactive training modules.

The highlight of eMotionDay is the eMotionRoom, where employees need to solve various puzzles and problems, which starts with a journey back in time to the 19th century when the first electric motor was invented. Other activities in the eMotionRoom include learning the history of the Wolfsburg location and a look at the digital future of driving.

“Volkswagen is constantly working on innovative training and development concepts as we move towards becoming a provider of sustainable and software-oriented mobility. These concepts are our key to a successful transformation. The more digital our world becomes, the more crucial our team’s skills become for our competitiveness. Volkswagen has launched a broad-based retraining campaign at its German sites, and the escape rooms play an important role in this initiative. After Zwickau and Emden, we are now rolling out this successful concept at our largest plant here in Wolfsburg,” commented Volkswagen Board Member for Human Resources Gunnar Kilian.

Photos from Volkswagen

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