Production hall being built at Ingolstadt site over an area of around 41,000 square meters
Dr. Frank Dreves, Audi Board Member for Production: “New body shop is another contributor to our growth strategy.”
Completion planned for late 2013
Work on the new Audi A4 body shop has reached an important milestone: Audi is today celebrating the official topping-out ceremony at the Ingolstadt site around eight months after construction work began. The facility occupies a total area of some 41,000 square meters or the equivalent of six soccer fields and is to be completed in late 2013.
“The new body shop is yet another contributor to our growth strategy. We are investing substantially in this location’s future, and therefore in Audi’s future,” commented Frank Dreves, Member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG for Production. “The new hall is certainly impressive because of its dimensions, but ultimately it’s our employees who drive our growth with their creativity and passion.”
“The new facility will allow a faster, better and more ergonomical production process, and this will especially benefit our staff,” said Peter Mosch, Chairman of the General Works Council of AUDI AG. “900 employees will be working in this modern hall. This is a major project securing the company’s economic viability and thus safeguarding jobs here in Ingolstadt.”
The building’s core alone requires around 68,000 cubic meters of concrete. The finished structure will be more than 31 meters high, over 190 meters wide and some 220 meters long. The production hall’s design echoes that of the adjacent new A3 body shop, which went into operation earlier this year: The roof’s load-bearing structure is multifunctional, allowing flexible distribution of the pillars inside the hall. This means the two-story building can be optimally adapted to the setup of the plant and thus to production requirements.
The two stories will house production of all body parts for the A4 family and all related logistical processes. An advanced conveying system on the mezzanine level ensures delivery of side panels and car bodies, permitting utilization of the hall’s entire floor space. Besides around 900 employees, 1,000 robots will be active in the new A4 body shop.
