Car factories set for revolution

Leading robot maker believes new production methods are way to lower EV prices

- JULIAN RENDELL

A radical reshaping of automotive production lines to include flexible manufacturing cells, robotically guided vehicles and automated parts warehouses trackside are key to making EVs affordable, believes Europe’s second-biggest robot manufacturer, ABB.

The Swiss firm is pushing a new production system that abandons the traditional assembly/trim line, with its dozens of sequential assembly stations, in favour of multiple flexible manufacturing cells between which vehicles and parts bins are hauled on trolleys by automated mobile robotic vehicles.

Rethinking car production to drive manufacturing costs down will compensate for the high cost of essential componentry in electrics and is emerging as a key pivot point in manufacturing, ABB believes.

“Manufacturers have got to reduce the price of battery-electric cars, and that means more efficient factory operations,” said Patrick Matthews, ABB’s assembly group manager. “The velocity of change in electrification technology right now is unbelievable, and the EV transition is the main catalyst.”