The last Volkswagen e-Golf has just rolled off the production line in Dresden, Germany where a total of 50,401 examples have been built since early 2017. As George Harrison wrote, "all things must pass." The facility will now undergo renovations for three weeks to prepare for ID.3 production beginning in late January. The ID.3, alongside the ID.4 SUV, is already in production at VW's Zwickau facility, also located in Germany. ID.4 production will later be extended to Chattanooga, Tennessee following a plant expansion there.

"The end of the e-Golf is also the start of the final preparations for the ID.3. In just a few weeks, we will be opening the next chapter for the Transparent Factory," said Danny Auerswald, head of the Dresden plant.

"After Zwickau, we are the second location in Europe to manufacture vehicles based on the new modular e-drive system. Volkswagen is thus underlining the importance of the Saxon plants in the group-wide E-offensive."

The e-Golf debuted in 2014 and was also built in VW's hometown of Wolfsburg until earlier this year. The automaker decided to add a second e-Golf production line in Dresden due to high demand, especially in Norway and Germany. In total, the two facilities built 145,561 e-Golfs in more than seven years. Since it opened in 2001, Dresden has produced a variety of VW Group models, including the Phaeton and the Bentley Flying Spur. The e-Golf will go down in VW history as a vital and, perhaps, game-changing vehicle.

Not only did it begin the automaker's "strategic realignment" from combustion engines to electrification, but the hatchback also served as a working laboratory for new technologies, specifically batteries.

We reported last March that VW stopped promoting the e-Golf in America in anticipation of the ID.4's arrival. Due to a change in the EPA's calculation methods, its ratings were also downgraded for the 2020 model year. In 2019, it was rated at 125 miles on a single charge but dropped to 123 miles, and from a combined 119 to 113 MPGe. VW aims to sell 28 million battery electric vehicles by 2028. The ID.3 and ID.4 are just the beginning.