Volkswagen has opened a new plant in the city of Foshan to produce the Golf. The new factory, in the southern province of Guangdong, has been set up with local joint venture partner FAW and has an initial capacity of 300,000 units a year and a workforce of 6,500. The company said capacity will double in a second phase of investment.
“The move will reinforce VW’s leadership in China where it has delivered 2.05m vehicles in the first eight months of this year, up 17.9% over the same period a year ago,” the automaker said in a statement.
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Earlier this year, VW said that it planned to increase production in China 60% by 2018. Last year its sales in the country surged by almost half, boosting its share of the passenger vehicle market this year by three percentage points to 22% by the end of August.
The opening of the Foshan factory is part of a plan to expand the VW model line in China 29% by 2015. It aims to offer 90 cars, SUVs, vans and heavy trucks, up from 70 models now, and is targeting at least 3m deliveries in China this year.
VW is spending EUR9.8bn (US$13.2bn) to build factories and develop models in China by 2018, the country’s largest ever automotive investment programme. The company will expand its workforce by 33% to more than 100,000.
