VW to build two more plants in China
German automaker gets the go-ahead to build its twelfth and thirteenth assembly plants in Zhejiang and Xinjiang.
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VW Passat and plant Image: VW Group |
Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co. has been granted approval to build two new assembly plants in the city of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, and in Urumqi, Xinjiang province. The Ningbo plant will be the sixth to be built by Shanghai Volkswagen, and the 13th by Volkswagen in total. The 11.8 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) project will start production by late 2013, and is set to churn out up to 300,000 vehicles a year.
By comparison, the 2 billion yuan ($315 million) Xinjiang plant, situated near the provincial capital Urumqi, will be slightly smaller, producing only 50,000 vehicles a year. It does, however, mark the first time a foreign carmaker has built a plant in the remote, northwestern province.
Once the two plants are completed, VW will have 13 plants in total: seven owned by an FAW Group/VW joint venture, the remaining five are a collaborative effort between VW and Shanghai Volkswagen.
The plant marks another stage in VW's 123 billion yuan ($19 billion) expansion plan for China, which the German giant sees as a key part of its global ambition to become the world's largest automaker. In the first ten months of the year, VW has sold 1.9 million Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda vehicles in China, making up nearly 18% of the country's total passenger vehicle sales.
