Full production of the e-Crafter has now begun at the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles plant in Września. After nearly two years of shared production with the brand’s main plant in Hannover, the plant in Poland is thus now taking over production of all versions of the Crafter.
Dietmar Mnich, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Poznań: “The plant in Września is one of the world’s most modern car factories. Since 2016, when the plant went into operation, we’ve been continuously developing our areas of expertise. Both the plant in Września and the Crafter now being produced here in all its variants are important building blocks for Volkswagen Poznań and the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand.”
Commenting on the choice of site for the electric Crafter, the chairman of the Om NSZZ Solidarność trade union, Piotr Olbryś, said: “As the workers’ representatives we are incredibly proud. The fact that the e-Crafter is being produced at the Września plant is without doubt a success for the entire team of Volkswagen Poznań. This project brings greater job security and ensures high utilisation of plant capacity going forward. We are also pleased that the team is acquiring the necessary know-how and once again has the opportunity to broaden its skills.”
The e-Crafter is the ideal solution for urban logistics transport. Its range and battery capacity make it perfect in daily deployment for deliveries within the so- called last mile. At the same time the e-Crafter delivers huge benefits for the environment: it has zero emissions, no exhaust fumes and its electric drive system is extremely quiet. This has a direct, positive impact on the living conditions of city dwellers and also makes the drivers’ work more pleasant.
Plant manager Stefanie Hegels: “To be doing the production of the e-Crafter completely at our plant is a great success. Last spring the first MAN eTGE vehicles rolled off the production line here. For this production start-up we’ve adapted the lines accordingly and given our employees comprehensive training. We passed our own internal quality test with flying colours. The task now is to produce both vehicles in Września successfully in large numbers.”
Additional training for the team
The production of electric vehicles calls for employees to have the relevant specialist skills and in Poland requires special licences for working on electrical systems with a voltage of up to 1 kilovolt. Within the last three years, Volkswagen Poznań has run over 2,000 training sessions that have prepared the team for every step of the new working processes.
The qualification process takes in several stages: raising awareness in terms of safety at work and safety rules, plus standard and special training sessions for electricians. The training sessions for production staff were conducted at Volkswagen Poznań’s own training centre in Swarzędz.
The plant in Września is being 100% supplied with green power
Volkswagen Poznań is rigorously implementing the environmental goals of the Volkswagen Group’s goTOzero strategy. Volkswagen Poznań will become a CO₂ neutral company by 2050. Like the other plants in Poland, the plant in Września has since 2019 been supplied with power from renewable sources. Thanks to this decision the CO₂ emissions being generated have been reduced by almost 80%. The energy required for the vehicle production is generated by wind farms and hydroelectric power stations in Poland.