As the Volkswagen Group’s largest market, the Germans want to maintain the momentum in China by opening a new plant for Shanghai Volkswagen (SVW) in Yizheng, situated in the eastern part of the country.
Construction of the new manufacturing facility that has an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles began in July of 2010 and was completed earlier this month ahead of schedule.
“With a construction period of two years, we are even opening our new facility in Yizheng earlier than planned,” commented VW Group board member Jochem Heizmann at the opening ceremony.
“This is one of the most environmentally compatible plants of the Volkswagen Group. With advanced technologies and new production processes, we intend to continue to play an instrumental role in the future of China as an automobile country,” Heizmann continued.
Volkswagen has already started production of the Polo at the Yizheng factory with plans to add Skoda models in the near future. This is the second plant in China that assembles the Polo.
Located about 300 km (187 miles) to the North-West of Shanghai, the Yizheng site has a total area of about 1.3 million square meters and will eventually employ 3,700 workers.
In addition, to the plant itself, there’s also a technical testing center, a training academy to provide initial and advanced training for employees and an energy center.
The VW Group’s sales in China reached 2.26 million vehicles last year, while in the first half of 2012, deliveries rose by 17.5 per cent to about 1.30 million units. The German company aims to increase annual production capacity in the country to about four million units by 2018.
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