In total, the Group with its Volkswagen, Audi and Škoda brands employs more than 40,000 people at its production sites in China.
More than 4,500 guests celebrated the 20th anniversary of a First Automotive Works-Volkswagen joint venture, FAW-Volkswagen, at a ceremony in Changchun last night. In 1991, Volkswagen and FAW set up a joint venture since a job creating Chinese communist industrial policy required local partners for access to what has now become the world’s largest automarket.
FAW-Volkswagen is currently the second largest of China’s largest automobile manufacturers, behind GM and its Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and FAW partners.
FAW-Volkswagen has built five million vehicles since operations began. The anniversary vehicle, a “New Magotan,” left the assembly line in Changchun this week. The company expects annual production to top the one million mark for the first time this year.
“Together with our partner FAW we have played a decisive role in shaping mobility in China and created more than 15,000 jobs,” said” Dr. Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen AG. “Alongside our strong partners we are aiming to grow further in our second home of China and to create new jobs. We have laid the right foundations with targeted investments of €10.6 billion in capacity expansion and innovative and emotional vehicles.”
The People’s Republic of China has been the VW Group’s largest sales market since 2009. FAW-Volkswagen makes Volkswagen and Audi brand vehicles as well as parts and components at its plants in Changchun, Chengdu and Dalian.
Apart from the joint venture with FAW, Volkswagen also operates a second joint venture in cooperation with SAIC. In total, the Group with its Volkswagen, Audi and Škoda brands employs more than 40,000 people at its production sites in China and is aiming to sell more than two million vehicles for the first time this year.
(See also Chinese Government Approves Two VW Joint Venture Plants, Great Leap Forward! GM China Announces Five Year Plan to Double Sales by Introducing 60 New and Upgraded Models and New-Vehicle Consideration Rates Shift To European Models in China, away from Japanese. Chevrolet and Buick Gaining)
