Audi will be producing its electrically powered Gran Turismo at Audi Böllinger Höfe making it the brand’s first fully electric car to be built in Germany. The company is currently in the process of expanding, upgrading, and converting its facility at the Neckarsulm site for its new role.
Skilled craftspeople have been retained and digital processes and smart technologies will combine with their skills on the assembly line. The company will utilize customized new technology to produce the car but finishing touches will be applied by hand.
Due to COVID-19-related restrictions, the Audi manufacturing team will be training using virtual technology. In fact, most of the production process was planned suing virtual reality without physical prototypes – a first for Audi.
The automaker has established a body shop on site that is capable of constructing the body of the Gran Turismo from ultra-high-strength steel and aluminum. The shop consists of a body assembly line along which each body passes twice. It is constructed around what is called the two-way framer, in which ten robots are used to attach the inner and outer side panels. It combines all manufacturing steps involved in joining the sides in a single system.
The expanded assembly line includes 36 instead of the previous 16 cycles. The E-Tron GT will share the space with the Audi R8 despite them both being technologically very different. They will both be moved using the same 20 driverless transport vehicles and electrically powered monorail system. Humans and robots will work side by side. The body shop for the e-tron GT is around 85 percent automated; ten stations with a total of 34 robots.
Once each car is completed, it will be driven for 24.9 miles on public roads for quality assurance testing before leaving the factory and heading out to a dealership near you.
