Three days ago Nick and I took a train ride from Salzgitter to Wolfsburg to see the Volkswagen Factory and Autostadt. An early start, but only about 40mins on the train. The trains here are really quiet and luxurious, even the slower suburban ones. We changed platforms at Braunshweig and got onto the ICE train that goes over 200kms/hr!
Arriving at the VW factory and Autostadt in Wolfsburg it has changed enormously since I was there last in 98. The factory looked the same, but the surrounds were vastly different.
Nick found that there was heaps for him to do here like ride funny looking contraptions, design your own car and see a full size and scale clay and wood model of a VW Golf being produced. There was also many educational sustainability interactive activities for us to participate in together. There was a carbon footprint calculator that both Nick and I found really interesting. (It showed how bad we are at conserving energy!)
We booked the factory tour and then set out to look at a few things before the tour started.You get on a boat to begin with, cruise down the river for about 2 mins, then get off and get into a bus/train sort of thing. (would have been easier to just get in this to begin with). We then went on the tour which was really good and took us through the press area which showed the enormous and loud presses stamping out and cutting the different body panels. We even saw one of the stamping tools being changed. We also saw the robots welding the bodies together and the finished bodies coming out. Apparently this takes about 2 hours. A complete car takes 22 hours from a roll of sheet metal to finished product. The wouldn’t let us take photos though. Nick enjoyed the tour, but it was somewhat shorter than the one I went on in 98. Back then they took us through the areas where you got to see the bodies being dipped and painted, the suspension and interior being fitted and then the finished product being tested. Too many people now apparently.
We got to see and sit in some of the latest models in the pavilions of VW and the partner companies like Porsche, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Lamborghini, Bugatti etc.......
Nick and I got to go for a drive in the prototype “E-Motion” Golf which is full electric. I had driven an electric car (Nissan Leaf) before, so was not so exciting, but Nick enjoyed it. We went on the streets of Wolfsburg and got to really test it out. This was all free with the 12 euro entry fee, pretty cool.
Since there is an obstacle course track on the opposite side of the river and we could see the cars getting driven around, Nick was keen to give this a try, so we booked in for this also. Not being school hols, it was relatively easy to book stuff as there was not that many people around.
We got to drive the “Tiguan” which is a smaller SUV from VW. We got to drive it on a variety of terrain including through creeks, up steep inclines and down the other side, up stairs, over railway tracks and through a large concrete pipe. In this pipe we actually got to drive the car at a sideways tilt of 47 degrees! This was pretty cool as it felt like we were going to tip over.
We got to see cars being unloaded from the two automated car storage towers (400 cars each) which was amazing. You could take a ride up if you liked, but it cost 8 euro, so we passed on that as we were running out of time.
On the way back Nick and I got a slice of Butter Semmel or Butter Cake. It was soooooo good.
We looked and asked everywhere for a “VW Autostadt” pin for Nicks hat, but couldn’t find one. This was a little disappointing.
With there being so much to see and do there, we spend far more time than we expected to and didn’t get back to Salzgitter train station until after 7pm. It was a big day. We slept well that night.
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