With the groundbreaking ceremony for a new building, Audi is taking a further step toward modernizing its paint shop by 2025. Modernization of the existing buildings has already begun successively in recent months. The facilities are already being designed for future electric models. Adaptations to dip tanks, dryers or conveyor technology are also necessary because, for example, the sill of an e-vehicle is bulkier than that of combustion engines due to the battery.
"The comprehensive renewal of the paint shop is an important building block in further strengthening the site and aligning it for the future," says plant manager Fred Schulze. Works Council Chairman Rainer Schirmer also welcomes the construction measures: "Investments like these secure the site's long-term prospects and give our workforce security for the upcoming transformation." Potential savings will result from energy-efficient technologies, among other things, which will be used in the new A22 building. In the future, pretreatment and cathodic dip painting (CDP) will take place there. Further energy savings will result from a change in the painting process for the B and C series. In this process, the basecoat is applied directly "wet on wet" to the pre-zone coating. This replaces the previous filler.