Polo celebrates 500 000th unit at Kariega
This special vehicle, a white left-hand-drive GTI that will be exported to France, also marked the 4 202 260th vehicle built at the Kariega plant to date - which means the current Polo model accounts for almost 12% of all vehicles built here since 1948.
![500 000th Polo](https://images.caxton.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2022/07/500-000th-polo-1-780x470.jpg)
The Kariega plant’s milestone of 500 000 Polos follows about four and a half years after the launch of the current Polo in January 2018, and a few months after the facelifted Polo was introduced to the local market at the start of 2022.
Of the 500 000 Polo units, 90 004 were built for the local market and 409 996 were destined for export markets. Included in this are 77 397 units of the facelifted Polo.
Volkswagen SA (VWSA) currently exports the Polo built in Kariega to 38 countries, building this vehicle to all right-hand-drive markets and supplementing production for left-hand-drive markets. The Kariega plant is also the sole manufacturer worldwide of the Polo GTI.
“As VWSA and one of only two plants worldwide building this vehicle, we are proud to achieve the half-million mark,” said Ulrich Schwabe, production director of VWSA. “Despite difficult circumstances in the industry and the global community, the VWSA family has persevered to bring us this milestone. Just as we faced the challenges as a team, we will celebrate this achievement – and many more to follow – as a team.”
Source: MotorPress