Wolfsburg – the auto city within a city

wolfsburg

I took a day trip down to Wolfsburg from Berlin today with the others. It’s about an hour by train.

wolfsburg rail tickets

We had first class tickets thanks to Volkswagen Malaysia – it’s 76 Euros each way. The train travels quite fast though, the display says 135 km/h so I reckon it’s about 135 km away from Berlin. πŸ˜‰

autostadt

This is an interesting city primarily coz it won’t exist without the auto industry. The Autostadt (literally “auto city” in German) is the reason the city has prospered back in the day.

Interesting trivia: The roof area of the Autostadt is larger than the entire Principality of Monaco!

It was the bit of trivia that stuck the most to me. Heh.

autostadt cars

I collect facts like this coz I’m a bit of a general knowledge freak. Aud is like that too, I guess we’re just one of those people who absorbs the most random facts like a sponge.

Unlike her, I usually get it wrong when I regurgitate the facts though. Haha.

Anyway, the Volkswagen group owns nine brands – Volkswagen, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Audi, Bentley and several others. I was quite surprised by this. I didn’t know Lamborghini was owned by them.

ice cream

There are a lot of pavilions representing each car brand in Autostadt. The factory itself has its own doctors, restaurants, and stuff like that. There are several pavilions worth mentioning.

bugatti veyron

Bugatti. This beautiful and large (from the outside) pavilion only has one car. Yes, it’s the Bugatti Veyron.

Lamborghini also has a single car in their pavilion but what made it truly awesome is the intense hardstyle music playing with smoke and strobing lights. You gotta check out this video to experience what it feels like.

lambo

The car also flips to the outside, I didn’t know until after we went out and I took a photo of the car and asked Nigel to help take a photo of me with the car and the car flipped back inside, leaving a blank wall. Nifty.

Volkswagen has a pavilion that features two very interesting cars:

new beetle

The new Beetle. No, not the Beetle from the Das Auto show in Malaysia last year, this is the latest one that hasn’t hit our shores yet.

[Edit: My mistake, it’s the same one that VW brought to Malaysia last year. It’s still not for sale in Malaysia though.]

vw up

A custom Up! electric car.

up car

I reckon it looks a lot better than the stock version. πŸ˜€

up usb

Up! also isn’t available in Malaysia yet, so I got a 4GB USB drive for 13.30 Euros (about RM 52). I collect thumb drives and I also tend to buy souvenir t shirts when I travel. I usually don’t wear them, I have a Stonehenge t shirt that I haven’t even opened from my backpacking trip to London a couple of years back.

email

Anyway, the Volkswagen pavilion also has an interactive screen where you can put in your name, email address and make a music video out of it and send it to yourself. It’s part of their Think Blue initiative.

german

I intentionally didn’t use English even though that option was available. I used German to muddle my way though. Heh.

Posted: 8:32 am Wolfsburg time (GMT +2)

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22 thoughts on “Wolfsburg – the auto city within a city”

    • Hello Arthur! πŸ™‚

      I’m not sure if they’re bringing in the apple green color to Malaysia…maybe they’ll post it on their FB page when it comes here.

      Haha. I’m sure you can, it’s surprisingly roomy. πŸ˜€

      Your daughter will have a very eye catching Beetle with that color. πŸ™‚

      Reply
    • Yeah, it’s amazing to see the Wolfsburg Autostadt.

      One in 5 cars sold in Europe is one of the 9 brands there.

      I’m sure you can, enjoy the trip when you come here bro. πŸ™‚

      Reply
    • The first one was built ages ago. Heh.

      The second one is the VW up! It hasn’t been confirmed whether it’s coming to Malaysia though coz it’s a fully electric car and Malaysia can’t support that yet.

      I like it too, got the USB drive for that. πŸ™‚

      Reply
        • Yeah, it would be awesome! πŸ™‚

          …possibly in the near future when the infrastructure for electric cars is up for it. πŸ˜€

          Reply
    • Heh! Yeah, it’s always fun to travel!

      I like going to different places, have to miss one in about two weeks but will make up for it by going to Nepal and Philippines next month! πŸ™‚

      Reply
  1. HB, San Francisco now have charging posts all over the city for the electric cars. It very popular due gas price is high still. I will convert to electric car from my Benz I drive now turn it into electric. Why give up my car yet. Having it turn electric save it and recycle the my car to use again.

    Reply
    • Hey, that’s great! πŸ™‚

      In Germany, I saw ratings for each Volkswagen car according to carbon emissions and environmental friendliness. Good concept! πŸ˜€

      Reply
  2. Cool its nice that u visited other smaller cities of Germany apart from the well trodden Munich,berlin

    btw nice to be commenting on your blog again, its been a while =D

    Reply
    • Hey there Brian! πŸ™‚

      Yeah, it’s fun to visit the nooks and crannies of every single country, not just the path well traveled. It’s thanks to VW Malaysia that I got to visit Wolfsburg. It’s a nice little town, totally based on car manufacturing and exports. πŸ˜€

      Reply

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