Volkswagen has announced plans to build a $2.2 billion EV-only manufacturing plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, the same city where the automaker is currently headquartered.
In a press release, VW said construction of the new facility will begin in spring 2023, and the first vehicles will roll off the production line in 2026.
That first EV will be the Trinity, which the company says is a “key component of the largest modernization program in the history of Volkswagen’s main location.”
The Trinity will be a sedan similar in size to their current Passat, and will have a range of over 700 km (434 miles). It will also be “ready for autonomous driving, Level 4.”
Volkswagen is targeting a production time of 10 hours per Trinity from start to finish. If they are able to achieve that level of efficiency, it would be three times faster than how long they currently take to build an ID.3.
The Trinity will be built on the automaker’s new SSP platform, which will serve as the base for more than 40 million future vehicles, including some under their other brands like Audi, Porsche, and others.