New Volkswagen Assembly Plant for China | CarAdvice

Car Advice
  • Home
  • »  New Volkswagen Assembly Plant for China

New Volkswagen Assembly Plant for China

By Garreth Miers |
FIND DEALS

Auto giant Volkswagen has announced that it will build a second world class assembly plant in Eastern China.

This news follows Volkswagen’s announcement  last month that it would build its first Assembly plant in the South of China. Nonetheless these latest plans give a good indication of the growth that Volkswagen is expecting in the coming years.

Set to be operational by 2013 the Eastern China plant will have a capacity to produce some 300,000 Volkswagen cars each year.

China is currently one of the largest importers of Volkswagen vehicles, with sales reaching 1.4 million in 2009. 2010 has only meant more success for the German brand with sales in the first half of this year up 46 percent, reaching over 950,000 vehicles.

It is this growth that has prompted the auto giant to invest USD $7.7 billion ($8.74 billion) in building two new assembly plants in the country in an effort to keep up with demand. The company is expecting sales to reach 3 million vehicles by 2013.

Volkswagen appears to be following a trend in the auto industry by opting to assemble vehicles in China. Other Auto brands including Daimler AG, Nissan, Honda and Toyota are all expected build new assembly plants in China.

It is well known that Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn plans to overtake Toyota by 2018 to become the world’s largest Automaker (Hyundai may have something to say about this) and the latest move suggests his plans appear to be well on track.

  • Vibe

    I know that VW has a few China-only models, so would this factory make them or would we see the likes of Chinese made Polos or Golfs? Surely if that happened then they would be a bit cheaper too.

  • Damian

    “know that VW has a few China-only models, so would this factory make them or would we see the likes of Chinese made Polos or Golfs? Surely if that happened then they would be a bit cheaper too.”

    VW already has assembly plants in China that assemble the Mk6 Golf, Polo, Passat/Passat CC (called the “Magotan” and “Magotan CC”, respectively), and the Tiguan. So to answer your question, we indeed, do already have Chinese made Polos and Golfs. Whether these cars will be exported to Australia is another story. As far as I am aware, the Chinese made Volkswagens are, at this point in time, for domestic consumption only.

    • Vibe

      Thanks for that :)

      • Wingman77

        A few years ago I believe there was a period where the Polo sedan sold here by VW was built in China.

        • Gan Tan

          and If I recall it was a disaster for VW as they admitted that the Chinese Polo Sedan was not up to scratch and quietly removed it from the Oz lineup

  • Flying High

    a with a move to China, high quality will obviously be at the forefront of an aspirational VWs mind, what with all those quality goods emanating from that country. Or not.