The 64-year-old stops at the brake fluid filling system, pointing at the axles. “The ID.3 is also getting a drum brake, just like the Trabant,” says the assembly technician. Perfölz has been obsessed with technology since he was a kid. He took up an apprenticeship to become a communication engineer at Sachsenring, which is what the Zwickau VEB Sachsenring Automotive Plant was commonly known as, in 1972 and became a technician in 1974. At the time, 10,000 employees worked at three plants. 700 Trabants a day rolled off the production line over two shifts. Polo and Trabant on one line Production of the four-stroke cycle engine Trabant began in 1988. “We then worked on a mixed Trabant/Polo production line in 1990,” recalls Perfölz. “When the wall fell, there was a huge surge of motivation at the plant among all of my colleagues, no exceptions. We were finally in a position to build cars the entire world wanted. Everyone rolled up their sleeves and got to grips with the new processes, solutions were sought and found quickly, and there was a lot of improvisation.” In 1991, the Volkswagen Group began constructing a new plant in Mosel, to the north of Zwickau. There, production of the Golf III began in 1993. “That was a completely different category to the Polo,” explains Perfölz. “Everything was bigger and the Golf had a lot more components.” When the economy hit a wall in 2010, production of the Golf and Passat was concentrated in Mosel. “That gave us the breathing space to work depending on which model was in greater demand at any given moment,” recalls the technician. “In any case, our location was always kind of a test lab for the Group. Ultimately, our plant was completely rebuilt on a greenfield site, with lean administrative structures. That was and remains the major advantage of the new development in Mosel.” Determined to be involved in building the ID. The ID.3 has now been rolling off the production line in Zwickau for a few weeks.