siemens and uniti get set to open world's first fully automated car factory

last year, the swedish startup uniti raised over one million US dollars though crowdfunding to produce their lightweight, composite-based electric car. the model boasts unique features such as a fully electronic steering system and a full-screen augemented reality heads up display. the student-run group has now caught the attention of german industrial giant siemens, who have partnered with the uniti team to help get their futuristic car concept ready for the road, in an equally next-gen manner.

uniti and siemens nordic PLM have teamed up to build the world’s first fully automated car production facility. dubbed the ‘industry 4.0’ the factory will focus on sustainable manifacture of materials for lightweight electric vehicles, as well as the automated assembly of 50,000 of the city cars every year. following the creation of a fully-functional prototype to be unveiled in fall this year, the automated production line will commence set up within 18 months to deliver the first vehicles by 2019.

the production process will be based on the siemens’ PLM software suite that enables the entire manifacturing process to be planned in a virtual setting before implementation in the physical world. mats friberg, CEO of siemens PLM software in the nordics, explains that their production lifecycle management has become so perfected that the first vehicle produced on the physical production line will be able to be sold directly to the customer without even the need for a test vehicle. 

lewis horne, CEO of uniti sweden explains that the partnership with siemens means that they now have ‘the opportunity to not only develop a sustainable car, but also to manufacture it in a sustainable way at a larger scale.’ the uniti EV will feature a a5 KW motor juiced by an 11KWH battery, and will be constustef primarily from biomaterials.