Porsche builds factory of future
Production facility for Porsche’s first all-electric car designed to have zero environmental impact
ESTUTTGART, Germany lectric vehicle skeptics delight in dismissing the “zero emission” claims of EVs by citing the significant carbon footprint from the manufacturing process.
Porsche AG is well on its way to eliminating that specious argument with its new Taycan production facility here in the very heart of Porsche country.
“Porsche is pursuing the goal of a Zero Impact Factory — production without any negative impact on the environment,” explained Albrecht Reimold, member of the executive board for production and logistics of Porsche AG.
With a projected annual output capability of 20,000 vehicles, the facility is using electricity from renewable sources and biogas to generate heat.
In addition, the new production buildings are designed to be extremely energy efficient. Further efforts on the way to zero emissions are the electrically powered logistics vehicles, the use of waste heat in the paint shop, the greening of roof areas and what the company calls “a continuous and holistic approach to other potential resource savings.”
Porsche has committed to invest more than $8.75 billion in electromobility by 2022, and spent $1.1 billion in the new Taycan production facilities alone; $1.46 billion if you include the new body shop, which will also be used for the current generation of the Porsche 911.
What is also significant about the new factory is its location in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, just a few hundred metres from the still-utilized brick workshop where company founder Ferdinand Porsche built the first 911 (and years earlier the prototype for what would become the Volkswagen Beetle).
When the company first set out planning to produce the Taycan — based on the Mission E concept vehicle displayed at the 2015 Frankfurt show — Porsche’s global headquarters was not even considered, the thinking being there was not enough space to build the factory in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. Nor did it make financial sense in comparison to other sites in Eastern Europe and China.
But as the project evolved, Porsche decided the place where it all began for the company was the exact place where its ambitious plans for electromobility — a “new era” for Porsche — should start.
In addition, building the Taycan in the same place where all the company’s sports cars are produced underscores the Taycan’s sports car aspirations.
“The Taycan is a clear sign of our commitment to this traditional site, which we’re leading into the future by preserving jobs here and even creating new ones,” said Reimold, noting that employees are participating financially in the project by putting a quarter of a per cent of their negotiated pay raise into a fund, an arrangement he said is a first in the automotive industry.
Once in full production mode, some 1,500 workers are expected to be involved in the manufacturing process.