The home of the new A3 Sedan – Audi’s expands its site in Győr into a fully-fledged car plant

2,100 new jobs and an investment volume of more than €900 million – AUDI AG has expanded its plant in Győr, Hungary, into a complete automobile factory. The first models to be built at the new facility will be the Audi A3 Sedan and the S3 Sedan.

Audi’s site in Győr in the northwest of Hungary is not only the world’s biggest engine plant, for several years, it has also been responsible for the assembly of the TT Coupe and the TT Roadster, as well as the A3 Cabriolet and the RS 3 Sportback. For an investment of more than €900 million, an ultramodern car factory has now been built at the site with an annual capacity of 125,000 units. On floor space of nearly 270,000 square meters, equivalent to about 37 soccer fields, all production processes will take place – from pressing the sheet metal through to final assembly. The first models to be built at the new plant in Győr are the Audi A3 Sedan and the Audi S3 Sedan.

The foundation stone of the plant expansion was officially laid in July 2011; nine months later, AUDI HUNGARIA MOTOR Kft. was already celebrating the topping-out ceremony. With the car production now starting, the one-hundred-percent subsidiary of AUDI AG has created 2,100 new jobs directly. In the future, a total of 15,000 people will earn their living directly or indirectly from this plant.

The heart of the factory is the central building accommodating the analysis and pre-series center, quality assurance and up to 550 office jobs. It is located between the press shop and the body shop, which are laid out in a north-south alignment, and between the paint shop and the assembly hall, which form an elongated block in a an east-west alignment.

The main feature of the press shop is the ultramodern large press by the name of Servo-PXL; powered by 14 electric finely adjustable servo motors, it has a total closing pressure of 8,100 tons. When the slides are braked in their downward movement, the press recovers kinetic energy. Tool changing takes just three minutes.

The body shop also utilizes the latest technology. In its final stage, more than 600 robots, over 400 welding electrode holders, nearly 300 geometry, process and handling devices, approximately 80 bonding systems, 20 welding and brazing units, seven folding machines and other devices will be in use. An inline laser measuring system monitors the dimensional accuracy of the car bodies at 23 stations and seven ultrasound devices are used for random checks.

Another novelty is to be found in the paint shop: In all painting cabins, a so-called dry separator filters the paint mist out of the air with the use of powdered stone; the waste air from the final-coat painting cabins is especially cleaned to remove solvents. Apart from the clear varnish, only water-based paint systems are used. Air recirculation in the spray cabins saves about 50 percent of the energy needed for heating, cooling and humidity regulation.

The final assembly, where about 1,000 people will work, consists of 146 different cycles with a cycle time of exactly two minutes. In line with the herringbone principle, there are pre-assembly groups on each side of the main assembly line for doors, the cockpit and the combination of drivetrain and suspension. Ergonomic criteria had high priority in the planning of the final assembly.

In the energy center, which supplies electricity, heat and cold, Audi also places a high value on efficiency and conservation of resources. Designed as a separate building, the energy center accommodates three gas boilers and a cogeneration heat and power plant in which a natural-gas engine drives an electricity generator whose waste heat is utilized by the heating system. The plant can also independently receive remote heat from an external combined heat and power plant. Efficiency is enhanced all over the site by numerous heat-recovery units.

When the production now starts, AUDI HUNGARIA MOTOR Kft. can look back on a 20-year history. Since the company was founded, it has developed into one of Hungary’s biggest exporters and highest-revenue companies. Last year, Audi Hungaria produced 1,915,567 engines and 35,553 automobiles in Győr with almost 9,000 employees.