Who will be next to have an EV only factory? tell us below

Impressive to see the shift from ICE factory to EV factory and taking the workers with you.

This is the factory where the old Trabants 601 were produced during the DDR (East Germany) in the 60s. What a long journey!!

That was so interesting. Thank you VW for allowing Jack and the team access so we could have a glimpse behind the door. Thank you Jack for another excellent presentation!

Kind of frustrates me that these factories with huge flat roofs, are not covered with solar panels. I did spot a tiny VAWT wind-turbine though.

Jack you are such a great presenter. Enthusiastic, charming, informative and entertaining. Keep up the great work.

I'm not a huge VW fan but I've been surprisingly impressed by their efforts towards change. We went from faking emissions to spending billions on electrification and clean energy. I really, really hope they succeed!

Let's be honest VW needed to do this, the diesel gate scandal saw them with their pants well and truly down. But credit where credit is due it looks like they have grasped the nettle with both hands and respect to them for doing it, they are still the people's car it seems.

Hello im from Panamá and Panamá it d also away back un many technology salute to all of fully charge!!

Excellent view inside the factory. Why is so important to the workforce. So often overlooked. Thank you.

"Without the car even stopping" - car stopps. Jack, you little troll.

A most interesting and informative episode. I was a little surprised that they have retained ALL the workforce and can only imagine that this will reduce over time as people retire/leave.

I need to know more about the working of that solar panels.

You mentioned 3 things ICU vehicles producing companies must do. Thank you for emphasizing on the human factor as #2. Enabling employees with new skills and the mindset it takes to adapt to the necessary change is one of the keys to transformation success. Especially in countries with strong employee advocacy - but not limited to them.

Hope VW keep pushing, keep learning and survive.

“The first factory to be converted from ICE to full electric” I thought this was Tesla Fremont. GM ran it from 1962 as an ICE factory and Tesla paid to convert it in 2010 # Mary led the way 😀😂😅🤣

You could technically say that Tesla did that since the Fremont, California Tesla factory was previously the NUMMI plant that built Toyota's and Chevy products and previous to that as GM Fremont Assembly from 1962 to 1985 building many Chevy/Pontiac/Oldsmobile/GMC and Buick vehicles (including the bulk of the 1960s Muscle cars).

Love these tours with interviews with top leadership!

VW’s Chattanooga, TN MEB expansion is very cool also. I was lucky enough to be able to tour.

*Herbert Diess's strong character is highly understated considering this ungrateful but necessary and enormous task.* Kudos to VW!

What a great tour. As a Brit who has lived in Germany for 40 years, I hope that the UK can see what it means to first modernise the DDR, and then modernise the Automobile industry. I helped pay for all of that with the extra "Solidaritätsbeitrag" (Solidarity Contributution), which Germans have paid for over 30 years. Has the UK got a "Solidaritätsbeitrag" for their industries, or for rebuilding the north of England after the collapse of industry? Now you know why I live in Germany, and have a German family. .... "Solidarity"!

Love this! Great to see the extensive training program.

Orion Assembly for the Chevy Bolt and Hamtramck for the Volt and now Hummer EV both were converted over from ICE to EV for GM

Genuinely Impressed with this video guys! Really interesting insight in to what VW are doing. My Skoda will be delivered in the next few months and this was a great insight, thank you!

Isn't the Tesla Fremont Factory the first full factory to be transformed from ICE to EV production?

Technically GM's Lake Orion Michigan facility transitioned from ICE to EV back in 2016. GM's DHAM plant which started production in 2021 has also transitioned from ICE to EV. GM's CAMI assembly in Ingersoll Ontario is undergoing a transition right now and will start production this year.

One of my favourite episodes so far. As Jack said, inspiring. 👍

My id3 is in there somewhere 😂great video very interesting to see what happens behind the scenes 🔋 ⚡️

Having growing up close to the plant it always gives me the chuckles when you pronounce the Z in Zwickau like S instead of Ts. The pronunciation is not soft. Tststs. In any case, I have been inside the plant as a kid 20 years ago and it is nice to see it after the change. Thank you for that!

Wasnt Tesla's freemont factory the first to be converted to making ev's?

Not a word of criticism in this report, as if this factory and the products are just flawless and perfect. VW's own CEO Diess just this week highlighted competitive and technological flaws in his company in a Verge article. I expect well rounded unbiased reports from this channel, not skin deep corporate fluff pieces like this.

At 5:32 you can see a „Framo“ fully electric Truck. They are made only 25 km away from Zwickau in Löbichau and are shipped around the Globe. My Girlfriend works there. You are very welcome to visit the Framo GmbH if you like.

An impressively clean, modern-looking implementation of traditional assembly methods. I suggest listening to any interview one can with Joe Justice, an agile development consultant that has worked with Tesla, among others, as a contrast. I'm not smart enough to predict which approach will be superior long-term but Tesla's approach certainly sounds much more radical and fresh. I've caught two interviews of Joe and am anxious to hear more. Note to Fully Charged, you should try to score an interview with Joe Justice.

UK Tesla Model Y first deliveries take place in Southampton at the Horizon Cruise Terminal on the 19th Feb 2022.

That escape room concept is pretty cool

I drove a 2 stroke Trabi around Berlin recently on the Trabisafari, bloody good fun

Love the giant solar cricket bats at 01:15. Fantastic stuff Jack!

You mean transitioning under the same management? The NUMMI plant converted from ICE to electric in transition from Toyota/Chevy to Tesla. And Rivian’s Normal plant was previously for Mitsubishi ICE production. Right?

Great! Please, do more factory videos.

7:15 It's called "flexible specialisation" - we've had the tech to do this since the 1980s. Interesting how German and Swiss senior management frequently have PhDs - I'm guessing the majority of equivalent staff of blue chip companies in UK don't have a higher degree of any kind, or if they do it will be an MBA rather than a specialist technical qualification.

The world needs many EVs to be produced so it's good to see an ice plant converted to EV

Someones been reading press releases. 🤣

Mad to think how many big auto brands are so far behind.... Possibly too late. I can totally imagine people saying one day "what's a Toyota?"

1:28 Tesla Freemont factory used to make regular Toyotas.

Great video. More like this please. Fewer about cars the average person won't be able to afford.

Nice to see how my car was built; an impressive facility but it would be interesting to compare to a Tesla plant where they can produce cars in one third of the time - is it down to the simplicity of the Tesla range compared to the myriad of models they are trying to produce on one production line?

Amazing production processes, but I'd like to see a similar video when the Berlin Tesla factory is up and running, so that we see how Tesla manage to manufacture their vehicles so much more efficiently .

Great presentation Jack thanks .

It might be wrong to say it's the most advanced in europe if Tesla's in Berlin is significantly ahead. And the factory of the future has no people in it at all.

I'm sorry, but whoever put that horn sound into the edit at 0:09 deserves a bonus :D

VW clearly put a lot into this shop:)

Jack is the BEST....

They call Elon and Tesla a disrupter but they have really shook the industry up, big time. The car industry will never be the same

Cool, great stuff, and great work VW

Jack, Can you tell us anything about the solar arrays behind you during the introductory remarks. They look like that might be moveable on one axis.

The main story here is how VW transitioned from an ICE manufacturer to a BEV manufacturer. The automation part is also important but other manufacturers are ahead here. Great to see that the plant is green too!

Love the “Best in Tesla” intro music! 😂

I like Jack. He’s a great, natural, interesting very informative presenter.👍

Well done VW keep it up.

1:27 what about Tesla's Fremont Factory, which was General Motors Fremont Assembly, later operated by NUMMI? Tesla took ownership in 2010. You can say VW’s Zwickau plant is first in EU.

Do we have escape rooms? I only knew those from the change convention a few years earlier. I'll have to ask and take a look. And I've been working there for almost 22 years now and I thought I'd seen everything. But maybe I just missed that because I've had a lot of courses in body construction over the last two years. I've also read some comments and questions about the "missing" solar systems here. And yes, that is a fact that many of our employees certainly do not like. I hope our company will catch up a lot there. And the transformation in recent years away from combustion engines to electric cars has been a strenuous journey for the workforce. But everyone has played their part and is proud to have been the first factory in the world to have done so.

65 years ago Zwickau was the birthplace of Trabant. What a difference

Excellent presentation of this impressive quaint little factory. Another great example of converting an ice factory into a modernized EV production facility. It may may not be close to being one of the best EV factories among All those factories out there, but it's a great start for VW to make a positive change towards surviving further into the future, they definitely needed to start somewhere.

Wasn't the Tesla factory in California originally an ICE factory for GM and Toyota too?

This is a really great video and why I love Fully Charged. A nice study of the changes they have made, an interesting method of handling the culture change. I would love (with a management hat on) to understand how that has gone but that's not for Fully Charged... Jack, brilliant piece of presenting.

Have been driving our new id.3 for just over a month now around the Bournemouth and Poole area and we are so pleased with the car. The factory looks amazing. I would like to do a factory tour myself. I would also like to do some Beer tasting while i'm in the area. Cheers.

Well that 17mins just went past in a heartbeat. Really interesting to see. Slightly disappointed the roof isn’t covered in acres of PV though, wonder why not?

I hope the escape rooms showed a Trabant, the famous DDR transport icon made in Zwickau.

Thank You for All that you are doing for World Peace and for our Planet... Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. La Paz.. Namaste .. 🙏🏻 😊 🌈 ✌ ☮️ ❤️ 💐 🕊

Does anyone know what kind of batteries they are currently assembling in the ID3 and Cupra Born? Lithium Cobalt Oxide or Lithium Iron Phosphate? (LCO or LFP)

I wasn't going to watch this video but am so glad I did.

I really enjoyed that. That huge roof should be covered in solar panels...

The Tesla Fremont, CA factory and the Rivian Normal, Illinois factory also used to be 100% ICE

Interesting video! I did notice that VW missed a few years between 1910 and 1958 in their history room tho 😉

The premise that this is the first and only converted factory is wrong. It might be the first under the same brand. I always wonder why you have such a strong bias towards the incumbents.

A little mistake in he intro. Our Belgian Audi plant started in 1949 with ICE-cars and makes uniquely the Audi E-tron since 2018. They did this conversion earlier. AKA Audi Brussels or Volkswagen Vorst. Thx for the episode.

11:15 this reminds of the debate which is cheaper to make, DSLR cameras vs mirrorless cameras. The mirrorless cameras simply have less moving parts, it was only more expensive in the early years. On EVs, it is only the battery which makes EVs more expensive to make.

330,000 currently they are producing about 3, the waiting list for VWs is approx 1 year.

Oh my goodness... Dr Stefan Loth sure has one very intense staring thing going on when he talks to you...!! 😵‍💫 That aside... great content, as always, Jack. Took me right back to my motor-trade days, back in the 90s, taking corporate clients on factory visits in the West Midlands and Stuttgart... The robots are just so balletic in their movements - beautifully mesmerizing to watch...

Great video, some auto makers like Ford and GM must despair seeing a future without them.

Very impressive but the waiting lists are still crazy. I know there are huge issues at the moment but my ID4 GTX has now been put back to the end of October 22….not sure going to wait.

What a great video, very privileged too I guess to be allowed access.. Narrated to perfection also! 👏👏

Wondering how the factory power is supplied today as the Dr mentioned gas early on.

you didnt happen to see a huge car park full of cars waiting for there electronics did you? been waiting for mine since August

You can't rely on brands when the only thing that matters is how fast they scale volume production. Cant supply a market if you run out

Fascinating stuff Jack, but you didn't ask the CEO when they're going sort out their infotainment software?

I'm not sure about this statement: "It's the first factory anywhere in the world to transform itself from ICE car production to EV production"

Very cool! Did I see an e-Golf in one of the shots? Are they still building those for Europe?

Automotive manufacturing is accustomed to change. Manufacturing practices are constantly changing and factories often have to undergo major expensive changes. 1.4 Billion Euro is actually a fairly typical cost for doing a major update at any factory ICE or EV. So converting traditional car factories to build EV's while a large undertaking is well within the scope of normal automotive manufacturing because everything they do is practically a large undertaking.

Why are there Golfs in the body shop side by side with the ID3s? How will they manage the high demand for ID3, ID4, Born, etc. if they still produce Golfs on that line?

Very cool. I get to see where my VW ID4 came into the world.

Dear VW, please bring EVs to Australia, thank you. Awesome work Jack.

Very good. So clean there too. Massive investment

Ahh the old standard of measurement... The football pitch.

Its in the pipeline charging electric vehicles per mile to use uk roads ,express newspaper

VW has a lot if reparations to make, and also other companies who cheated on emissions and got away with it. But all the best wishes for them in their pathway to 100% electric.

I think VW could do even better than that but I still applaud VW for doing it, that’s the future!

I thought Tesla's Fremont factory was transformed from a former Toyota ICE factory or have I misremembered that.

So who's making the battery packs and why are they burning gas? How is gas cleaner. You'd expect a site of that size to have a couple of wind turbines or more and battery pack.

Intricacies of German pronounciation: the leading „z“ in Zwickau is very sharp, like the final sound in „hats“ 😉