H Volkswagen είχε ξεκινήσει πριν από 11 μήνες τον διαγωνισμό “People’s Car Project” στη Κίνα και συνολικά υποβλήθηκαν 119.000 προτάσεις για το τι τεχνολογία θέλει ο κόσμος να διαθέτουν τα μοντέλα της VW στο μέλλον, και τώρα ανακοίνωσε τις 3 εκείνες ιδέες που την εντυπωσίασαν περισσότερο από όλες.
Το πρώτο ονομάζεται Hover Car και είναι ένα μηδενικών εκπομπών όχημα το οποίο κινείται πάνω από το έδαφος, όπως ακριβώς λειτουργούν τα μαγνητικά τρένα στην Ασία. Το δεύτερο είναι το Music Car το οποίο χρησιμοποιεί ένα σώμα κατασκευασμένο από οργανικά LED, τα οποία εκφράζουν στον έξω κόσμο, την μουσική που ακούει ο οδηγός μέσα στο αυτοκίνητο. Tο τρίτο project που ξεχώρισε είναι το Smart Key το οποίο χρησιμοποιεί μια οθόνη η οποία ενημερώνει τον οδηγό αρκετές πληροφορίες όπως πόσο καύσιμο έχει ακόμη το ντεπόζιτο, τον καιρό και αν κάποιος προσπαθεί να παραβιάσει το αυτοκίνητο του. Η τρίτη ιδέα, δεν αποκλείω να περάσει κάποια στιγμή στη παραγωγή.
Παράλληλα η Volkswagen ανακοίνωσε ότι σήμερα ξεκίνησε η κατασκευή του Amarok και στο εργοστάσιο της, στο Ανόβερο της Γερμανίας, το οποίο μέχρι σήμερα κατασκευαζόταν στο εργοστάσιο της VW στο Pacheco της Αργεντινής. Η Volkswagen έχει ως στόχο να κατασκευάζει 185 Amarok κάθε εργάσιμη ημέρα, 40.000 Amarok τον χρόνο, τα οποία θα πωλούνται στις αγορές της Ανατολικής και Δυτικής Ευρώπης καθώς και στην Αφρική. Η παραγωγή στην Αργεντινή θα συνεχιστεί και στο μέλλον, τα αυτοκίνητα που θα κατασκευάζονται εκεί θα πωλούνται στην αγορά της Νοτίου και της Λατινικής Αμερικής. Περισσότερες λεπτομέρειες μπορείς να βρεις στο δελτίο τύπου που ακολουθεί.
[Πηγή: Volkswagen]
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AMAROK ASSEMBLY TO BEGIN AT VOLKSWAGEN’S HANOVER PLANT
- Future European Amarok contingent to be made in Hanover
- Series production to start end of June 2012
Hanover, May 3, 2012. Today Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony David McAllister, and the Lord Mayor of Hanover Stephan Weil, together with Chairman of the Volkswagen General and Group Works Councils Bernd Osterloh and Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber, Speaker for the Board of Management of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles as well as Thomas Zwiebler, Chairman of the Works Council of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, jointly opened the newly installed assembly lines for the Volkswagen Pickup Amarok.
Just over two years after the launch of the Amarok, the midsize pickup is also to be produced at the Volkswagen Brand’s factory in Hanover.
Dr. Martin Winterkorn explained: ‘Volkswagen has big growth opportunities worldwide in the light commercial vehicles segment. With the start of production in Hanover, the Amarok has finally arrived in Europe. The Amarok ‘made in Hanover’ stands for the production capability of the location and gives additional ongoing impetus to the success story of our Volkswagen pickup.’
It is planned to produce approximately 40,000 Amarok in a full production year, for delivery to customers in Eastern and Western Europe and Africa. Production at the Pacheco site in Argentina will be concentrating on deliveries to Latin America and South America in future.
‘It is wonderful that the Amarok is now to be produced in Lower Saxony. This is a good decision for the site at Hanover. The Amarok is the first pickup of its class from a European manufacturer – and it is a great vehicle,’ commented Prime Minister of Lower Saxony David McAllister.
At present the pre-production is being built on the Amarok assembly line. Following today’s launching ceremony it will soon make way for the pilot series. Serial production will commence from the end of June and then 185 Amarok per working day will roll off the Hanover assembly lines.
‘Hanover and the Transporter plant have belonged together for many decades. I wish Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles all possible success with the Amarok. The decision to locate production in Hanover demonstrates that Germany remains competitive as a location for automotive production.
The Amarok secures the jobs of many thousands of people, not only on the plant, but also in the region,’ Lord Mayor of Hanover Stephan Weil emphasised.
Chairman of the Volkswagen General and Group Works Councils Bernd Osterloh said: ‘The General Works Council agrees with the Group and Brand Management Boards that the workforce and the management have cooperated outstandingly in setting up the new production. They have demonstrated the competitiveness of the location and, by doing so, have set the course for the future.’
Setting up production of the Amarok involved extensive modernisations in Hall 2 – where the LT, was manufactured from 1975 to 2006 – and also integration of the Amarok into the paint shop and the body shop, as well as the construction of the new vehicle assembly lines.
‘Our workforce stands for tradition, experience and flexibility. Thus our employees willingly took on, and successfully mastered, the difficult task of integrating another product into a plant which has had good capacity utilisation since 2011. The team is justifiably proud of what they have achieved and they are looking forward to the Amarok,’ confirmed Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ Works Council Chairman Thomas Zwiebler.
Five generations of the Volkswagen Bus, altogether almost 8.5 million Transporter, Caravelle, Multivan and California models have been produced in Hanover since 1956. Additionally, about one million LT, Taro, MAN-G trucks and, in the 1970s, several tens of thousands of ‘Beetles’ have rolled off the assembly lines there. Since 2009 the plant has also been producing the painted body for the Porsche Panamera. In 2011 it was decided that the pickup Amarok – as a double cab – would also be produced at the traditional plant.
For Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber, as head of the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Brand, establishing the Amarok at the Hanover plant was a historic moment. ‘In the world of Volkswagen there are probably few factories, and hardly any other team, capable of building vehicles with such variants. Here in Hanover we now have the T5, the painted Panamera body, and now also the Amarok. We have high capacity utilisation, we are productive and profitable.’
Schreiber said the Amarok had not only established itself in successfully South America, South Africa and Australia. In Europe, too, its efficient drive engineering, driving comfort, the ample space it offers, its high level of safety and not least its robustness have made the Amarok a trailblazer for the modern pickup class, as witnessed by its continually rising sales and the top position it has already attained in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. ‘With the two Amarok locations at Pacheco in Argentina and Hanover in the heart of Europe, we have achieved effective regional deployment.’ Production in Hanover, he said, would mean even more availability and shorter delivery times for customers in Europe. This could be expected to make a substantial contribution to boosting Amarok sales yet further, Schreiber emphasised.
The opening ceremony took place before the annual site symposium. Every year at the symposium members of the Volkswagen Board of Management discuss the development of the site with the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Brand Board of Management, the Plant Management and the Works Council.
CHINESE SHOWCASE CONCEPTS FOR THE VOLKSWAGEN OF THE FUTURE
- People’s Car Project’ presents first results at Auto China 2012 in Beijing
Beijing/Wolfsburg, May 2, 2012: With 33 million visitors to the website and more than 119,000 ideas submitted, the ‘People’s Car Project’ (PCP) launched in China 11 months ago has far exceeded all expectations. Three of the vehicle and technology concepts created by users of an online platform and further developed by Volkswagen are currently on show at Auto China 2012: These concepts are the Hover Car, the Music Car and the Smart Key.
With the Hover Car, an environmentally-friendly two-seater city car which hovers just above the ground, Volkswagen is presenting the study of a zero-emissions vehicle that could in future travel along electromagnetic road networks. ‘The creative ideas from the ‘People’s Car Project’ give us a valuable insight into the wishes of Chinese drivers,’ Simon Loasby, Head of Design at Volkswagen Group China, said. ‘The trend is towards safe cars that can easily navigate overcrowded roads and have a personal, emotional and exciting design.’
The ‘Music Car’ expresses the wish of many Chinese for individual automotive design. Equipped with organic light emitting diodes, the exterior colour of the vehicle changes with the driver’s choice of music. More than ever, the car thus becomes a means of self-expression and a fashion statement for young drivers.
The ‘Smart Key’, also developed under the PCP and currently on show in Beijing, takes up the trend towards the stronger integration of online technologies in vehicles: the slim nine millimetre key has a high-resolution touchscreen which keeps the driver up to date on the fuel situation, climate conditions and the car’s security via the 3G network. The driver can also monitor the vehicle from a bird’s eye perspective through realtime satellite transmission.
‘The ‘People’s Car Project’ in China marks the beginning of a new era in automobile design’, Luca de Meo, Director of Marketing, Volkswagen Group and the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, commented. ‘We are no longer just building cars for, but also with customers and at the same time initiating a national dialog which gives us a deep insight into the design preferences, needs and requirements of Chinese customers,’ de Meo said.
Due to high demand and the exceptionally good quality of the contributions, the PCP, which was originally scheduled to run for one year, has been indefinitely extended. In addition, a new project phase will be launched during the coming months, when users will not only be able to submit their design, personalisation and connectivity ideas for tomorrow’s mobility, but will also be able to contribute suggestions about the environment. The drafts will first be evaluated by the entire user community. In a second step, experts will then assess the concepts and award prizes to the winners.
‘In a long-term context the findings of the ‘People‘s Car Project’ will influence Volkswagen’s product strategy,’ de Meo explained. ‘The design of our models will, however, continue to reflect the tradition of the Volkswagen brand. If at some time in the future we are to produce a vehicle from the ‘People’s Car Project’, it will be a combination of customers’ opinions and brand tradition,’ de Meo added.
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