Volkswagen’s Emden plant sits on the Ems estuary in East Frisia, in the far northwest corner of Germany, on a 4.3 million square metre site beside the port. It opened on 8 December 1964 and has built more than 12.5 million cars since.
The reason for the location was shipping. Volkswagen was selling Beetles to the United States faster than it could get them there, and a plant at a deep-water port meant finished cars could go straight onto a boat. Emden built the Beetle for its first fourteen years, and the last Beetle saloon made anywhere in Germany came off the line here on 19 January 1978. The Passat replaced it from 1977 and stayed for more than four decades, joined later by the CC and the Arteon.
Volkswagen announced in August 2019 that Emden would become an electric-only plant, and put more than a billion euros into the conversion while the old models kept running. ID.4 production started in May 2022, the ID.7 followed in the summer of 2023 and the ID.7 Tourer estate in 2024. The last combustion car left in December 2024. Around 7,700 people worked at the site as of December 2025.
Emden is now the plant Volkswagen builds its two largest volume electric cars in, and the ID.4 is due to be sourced from here alone once production is consolidated away from Zwickau. Its redesigned successor, reported to be called the ID. Tiguan, is due in October 2026 and IG Metall has said it will be built at Emden until the end of 2031.
