Evo Car of the Year 2016
Volkswagen aims to become a comprehensive manufacturer online, with products ranging from the smallest subcompacts to larger luxury cars, and the VW Phaeton is the latest example of the upward mobility of the brand in order to prove to customers that this luxury car is indeed different from all others, the company set up a factory at a cost of some 186 million euros 208 million at current exchange rates that is unique worldwide building is located in the heart of Dresden, Germany, a 800-year-old city known for its arts and crafts the factory walls are almost entirely glass on 290,000 square feet that its floors are completely covered in Canadian maple its layout is visitor-friendly, set up to receive daily, 250 tourists a reservation in advance at 5 euros each, clients or prospects gratis no, no loud noises fireplaces, and no by-product s toxic parts arrive, and luxury cars depart It seems that the most expensive way to Bui ld cars from Cadillac designed a line of Going assembly that included a ride on a 747 between the start of construction Italy and arriving in Detroit, but if the process convinces customers that they're getting something special, perhaps it is worth the value added costs we have had the opportunity to visit the facilities and get answers to some frequently asked questions while we were there.
Does this sounds like the lobby of an opera house or a factory In fact, during the European floods of 2002, when the opera house in Dresden was flooded, the transparent factory host the opera Carmen, but usually it is tourists, customers, and prospects that are hosted in this space the sphere on the right houses an interactive video experience for learning a VW Customer commissioning center is just off camera to the left of the two balconies shown, within which the Phaeton buyers can choose colors, leathers, wood, etc for their cars on the ground floor features a restaurant, and downstairs there a simulator that offers visitors a virtual test drive of the Phaeton VW intends to invite a large number of the first US customers Phaeton in Dresden for a factory visit.
Trams arrive on the lowest level displayed on the far left, where the parts are unloaded and stored in the order for delivery in time for the cars to which they are intended.
Final assembly plant only handles transparent All operations smelly, noisy, such as stamping and welding and painting the steel body, place elsewhere in Zwickau be specific painted bodies arrive at the factory by truck Other parts 1200 and 34 pre-assembled components are shipped to a remote logistics center three miles away and are transferred from there to the factory by trams that operate on public transport routes Dresden.
Phaetons begin on a conveyor which is about 20 feet wide and includes a housing that is preloaded with all necessary parts for this car during this assembly phase These boxes are refilled five times during the vehicle assembly process The circles along the sides of the conveyor are mouths for air conditioning, and each car runs on a platform that each worker can rise to a level that is comfortable for him or inductive chargers as maple floor, such as those recharged former GM EV1 recharge electric torque screwdrivers and the conveyor moves at a very slow pace, and there is no official time limit for each job is If a worker feels that he needs over time, the time allotted, so the quality is ensured that said, the current production rate is 40 cars per day quietly enough on ow shifts, whereas the theoretical maximum speed is 150 cars per day with three shifts, at which point it will certainly be a time limit on each job.
After a ride on the conveyor belt mounted on the ground, the body is placed on one of the 31 airlines, each of which can rotate the body at a comfortable angle for the employee to fix the underbody components Most work the transparent factory is done by hand but robots handle five operations thereof is pressing the composite plastic spare tire to stick well in the steel frame spare tire well arrive at the factory with the air compressor already installed air suspension.
The painted body arrive and are stored in a visible MULTIFLOOR area along the rear wall of this photo When a body is called on the production schedule, it comes out of storage and is loaded onto a shown conveyor in the foreground in the second stage transparent factory its doors are removed and built on their own line, before returning to the original car down on the ground floor.
The suspension and powertrain are mounted on the floor of the basement, closest to where the parts are deposited by tram From there they reach the second floor by elevator Here you see a powertrain 4 V- 8 2 liter 4MOTION® frame and all assembled and waiting for another robot to blend with a body of silver Phaeton, shown in the background the entire operation, including the application of a torque all bolts to the body, is automated.
After a tour of both the conveyor upstairs and suspension and drive train loop, the Phaeton down to the ground floor Both robots that we see here are the installation of the wheels further and windshield and the sliding rear window Basically, robots handle the work that is too heavy or uncomfortable for 227 frontline workers to perform.
Two dashboards just arrived on a support, delivered by an autonomous robot, seen pulling ahead of IP support Many of these small robots running around the plant, guided by some 6,000 magnets embedded in the floor, the parts delivery boxes and other components just in time.
At this stop, various pipes are connected to the front of the car and coolant, brake fluid and fuel are added to the car, we could not see a single drop of liquid spilled, we could not sniff a burst of steam.
Following this, a high pressure water bath checking for leaks, several checks are made of the final system, and visual inspection of the paint and panel finishing adjustments are made in light booths like Each -ci Phaeton currently spends about five days on the line by the transparent factory.
Shortly after the wheels go on the car, it is lowered to the ground and started for the first time, he then obtained his headlights for and alignment suspension checked is run on a dynamometer underground track with many surfaces rough to reveal rattles and even some cars are driven on the streets of Dresden.
Once all the tests have been satisfactorily passed, the Phaeton is either packed for shipment by truck or placed in this glass tower for delivery of the possible plant Note that all cars in this tower and on the assembly line are already sold the mill delivery customers are treated lunch and then visit their cars are parked in the lobby where a partner to familiarize the customer all functional aspects of the car before that he or she leads the Phaeton from the glass factory.
Car and Driver Feature Transparent VW factory, transparent factory driver.