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65 Years of production at Volkswagen’s Commercial Vehicle factory

On 8 March 1956, production started at the factory after an unbelievable construction period of just one year.

Mar 12, 2021

The VW Type 2 Kombi, also known as Bulli in Germany was assembled here. Over 9 million Bullis have been produced to date.

65 years old, but still way off retirement: the legendary VW T2, lovingly called the Bulli by its fans, has been produced at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ plant in Hannover-Stöcken since 8 March 1956.

In Germany during the mid fifties an economic and industrial resurgence was well underway. Bread, beer and burgers had to reach the customers. Consumer goods, too, such as televisions and refrigerators, needed to be delivered reliably and as quickly as possible to their buyers. To meet these needs, business people and tradesmen alike Volkswagen followed on from their first generation Kombi (known as Bulli in Germany) with the equally as indestructible Type 2 Bulli.

 

But the history of Volkswagen’s commercial vehicle plant is as unique as the Bulli itself.

Construction started with 372 employees during a horrible winter in Hannover. By the end of March 1955, 1,000 workers were already busy on the construction site and planks had to be laid over the soft, muddy ground so that trucks are able to deliver the building materials.

 

Despite the challenging conditions, the huge four metre high walls were erected in just 12 weeks.

From May 1955, some 2,000 workers developed the gigantic building site every day.

 

A contemporary Journalist visiting the site in the day wrote “Pouring the concrete uses up 600,000 square metres of supporting timber. To put this in perspective: "That would have been enough to build a one-metre-wide wooden walkway from Wolfsburg to Basel"

And to this day, Volkswagen Commercial vehicle are assembled at the plant, over 10 million of them since 1956. It has been modernised and looks to the future with the launch of the new Multivan this year and with the ID.BUZZ from 2022, Volkswagen are completing a new modern, attractive range of vans, MPVs and leisure vehicles for a broad clientele in years ahead. Including premium electric vehicles (D-SUVs) will be produced in Hannover for other group brands from 2024.

Currently being made at the plant is the T6.1 and before the end of the year production will begin of the new Multivan (with conventional drive system and as a plug-in hybrid). Next year, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ first fully electric vehicle will be produced in Hannover: the ID. BUZZ. The story of the Bulli from Hannover continues