THE LITTLE orange hatchback edges down the production line, sitting atop a metal jig. Yet to receive its headlights, wheels, engine, doors or even interior, it’s but a naked body. Looking down the production line, which inches forward slowly but unceasingly, there’s a queue of vehicles in a similar state – whites, oranges, blacks, blues and silvers.
There’s the din of distant machines, the clack of far-off hammers, and giant ceiling fans the size of helicopter rotors circulate the hot air in a gentle artificial breeze. Men, and the occasional woman, dressed in the same standard-issue blue overalls, move about the bare vehicles calmly and wordlessly, like they’ve done it a thousand times before.
No matter where it is, there’s something endlessly positive about a new-vehicle production line. Cars being born, in their thousands, heading to excited new owners to serve faithfully – and better their lives.
Today, we’re at a ‘mega factory’, the largest new-vehicle production facility in all of Asia – SAIC’s Ningde plant in China. While car factories in and of themselves are nothing special – hundreds exist all
