Environmentally friendly and climate neutral

No combustion engine, exhaust, or particulate matter – the e-Golf* is climate neutral on the road. But at the Gläserne Manufaktur, the environment plays a role not only when the cars hit the road but also well before production starts.

The Gläserne Manufaktur was not designed to stand in an industrial park but rather at the Großer Garten park in the heart of Dresden. For that reason alone, the planners assumed complete responsibility for the environment right from the start. When the complex was built around two decades ago, ponds, grass and hundreds of trees were laid out or planted on the 50,000 square meters of exterior grounds. Special sodium-vapor lamps that emit yellow light are used outdoors so as not to harm the insects from the nearby Botanical Garden. The foundations of the building were designed to maintain groundwater levels. And compared to the previous state of development on the site, the amount of impermeable surface area dropped from 6.7 to 4.8 hectares.

Instead of fences or other barriers, passersby are now greeted by extensive greenery and a glass facade that allows them to look in and invites them to pay a visit. To prevent birds from flying into the glass facade, loudspeakers transmit bird calls of various species to encourage those types of birds to stay away and find somewhere else to settle.

Climate-neutral production

In order to avoid having trucks clog traffic in the city center when delivering components needed for production, a special freight train was developed to service the Gläserne Manufaktur. The blue “CarGoTram” rolls to the site three times a day on the city’s tram rails. It carries loads that would otherwise take three 18-meter-long trucks to transport.

3,600

tons of CO₂ a year are saved by renewable power.

Components delivered to the Gläserne Manufaktur are assembled in climate-neutral production processes. The power from hydroelectric sources is 100-percent renewable and saves 3,600 tons of CO2 a year. Certified by the German Technical Inspection Agency (TÜV), this green power helps reduce the Volkswagen brand’s overall environmental footprint. In cooperation with the South Pole Group (SPG), the world’s largest developer of climate protection projects, we offset the 400 tons of CO2 a year otherwise emitted in our thermal production processes with climate certificates to sponsor sustainability projects in China and Brazil.

Environmentally friendly driving – thanks to solar-powered charging stations

Dresden’s largest public charging station is located right at the Gläserne Manufaktur. This is not just a logical consequence of planning and developing the site into a “Center of Future Mobility,” but also a sign of the comprehensive partnership between Volkswagen Sachsen and Dresden, the capital of the state of Saxony, in developing future-oriented mobility strategies.

Six 25-kWp solar panels each measuring 22 square meters supply power to the two high-speed charging columns with four charging points each. This means the cars that charge here are neutral with respect to their CO2 emissions. Surplus electricity is stored in a long-life battery with a capacity of 130 kWh or fed into the Gläserne Manufaktur’s grid. This all goes to show that responsibility for the environment starts well before the cars hit the road.

* e-Golf: Power consumption combined 13,8 - 12,9 kWh/100 km - CO2 emissions in g/km: 0 combined - efficiency class: A+
This vehicle is no longer available for order.

 

ID.3: combined power consumption in kWh/100 km: 15.6-13.1; combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 0; efficiency class: A+++*.
*The ID.3 Pure Performance cannot be ordered with individual equipment at the moment.

ID.4: combined power consumption in kWh/100 km: 17.5-15.5; combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 0; efficiency class: A+++.