VW breaks ground on new plant in China

Construction work has just begun on Volkswagen’s new vehicle plant in Changsha in the province of Hunan, south-central China.

The factory is being built in cooperation with the Chinese joint venture Shanghai-Volkswagen (SVW).

"We are expanding our capacity in China to four million vehicles per year by 2018 in order to meet demand from our Chinese customers," Professor Dr. Jochem Heizmann, member of the board of management of Volkswagen AG, said at the contract signing ceremony and ground-breaking in Changsha. He has responsibility for "China" and is president and chief executive officer of Volkswagen Group China.

The new plant in Changsha is due for completion by the end of 2015 and will manufacture about 300,000 vehicles a year.

A complete production facility with press shop, body shop, paint shop and final assembly is being built.

Priority is being given to cutting energy and water consumption as well as CO2and solvent emissions, and reducing waste volumes in line with the "Think Blue. Factory." programme.

Heizmann added, "We will meet our environmental responsibility in Changsha and set another milestone in resource efficient production with the new factory."

The Changsha plant is part of the €9.8 billion investment programme being realised by the two Chinese joint ventures in the period to 2015. The aim of the investment projects – financed from the cash flow of the two joint ventures Shanghai-Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen – is to consolidate the Volkswagen Group's leading position on the Chinese passenger car market.

The investments focus on developing new models and expanding production capacity. The Changsha factory is one of seven new plants to be built in China this year and over the coming years. The plants will also create new skilled jobs and introduce more Europena gasoline and diesel engines to China.

Shanghai-Volkswagen currently operates vehicle plants in Shanghai and Nanjing as well as at Yizheng in the province of Jiangsu. Further factories are being built in Ningbo and in Urumqi under the "Go West" strategy.

FAW-Volkswagen operates vehicle plants in Changchun and Chengdu. The factory in Foshan, currently under construction, will be FAW-Volkswagen's first plant in Southern China.

Together with its partners FAW-Volkswagen and Shanghai-Volkswagen, the Volkswagen Group currently builds 20 models of the Volkswagen, ŠKODA and Audi brands in China.    ∎