VW expands production network in China

The Volkswagen Group has started production at its new plant in Ningbo to tap into the market south and west of Shanghai.

The group’s 16th factory in China, the plant has its own press, body and paint shops plus a final assembly unit and has a total annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles. Production kicks off with the new Skoda Superb while VW and Skoda models based on the Modular Transverse Toolkit (MQB) platform will follow in the next stage.

The Ningbo factory is Shanghai-Volkswagen’s fifth vehicle plant. A further plant in Changsha, south central China, is scheduled for completion in 2015.

China is the Volkswagen Group’s largest sales market. In 2012, the company and its partners Shanghai-Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen delivered 2.81 million vehicles to customers in China. In the first nine months of this year, deliveries rose some 18% compared with the same prior-year period to 2.36 million vehicles.

The group is aiming to expand annual production capacity to around four million vehicles by 2018.