NGC Battery Assembly
From concept to volume production
Contract manufacturing in numbers
Based on the combination of our production process expertise and our contract assembly competences, VDL Steelweld was selected to engage in the project to develop, install and operate a battery pack assembly line. This line supplies our colleagues at VDL Bus & Coach with battery packs to power their latest electric public transport bus model: the New Generation Citea.
We started with the general requirements such as model types and variants, annual volumes, quality requirements, logistics and, last but not least, safety. After all, we are dealing with high power and high voltage lithium ion battery systems. We developed an assembly process with an optimal balance between capex and opex, fulfilling all volume and quality requirements without compromising on safety, both in the assembly and logistics processes. All manual workstations have been laid out with optimal ergonomics and with the wellbeing of our colleagues in mind.
During production, we have collaborated intensively with both our customer and our suppliers to realise product and process improvements, covering technical aspects as well as cost savings.
In recent years we have supplied over 12.500 systems to satisfied customers, and millions of silent and emission-free kilometers have been driven in many European cities with our batteries since then. Something we are very proud of.