Volkswagen celebrates 100 000th Polo produced for SA

Having celebrated the assembly of the two millionth locally-made Polo last year, Volkswagen South Africa has completed production of the 100 000^th unit destined for the local market, rather than for export.

Made by the automaker’s night shift team at the Kariega Plant, formerly Uitenhage, in Nelson Mandela Bay on 1 March, the white Polo’s exact nomenclature wasn’t disclosed, though images point to it being potentially the unbadged base model that retails from R334 700.

“Though the majority of our Polos are built for export markets, we are incredibly proud of how popular this vehicle is among South African customers,” Volkswagen South Africa Production Director, Ulrich Schwabe, said in a statement.

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“This includes our employees, who build these high-quality vehicles with pride, and whose dedication and love for our vehicles has made this milestone possible”.

What challenges?

The milestone, which comes after the one millionth export model rolled-out of the Kariega Plant in May last year, comes on the back after the automaker announcing a drop in market share and production output by a claimed 30 000 units due to load shedding.

“We lose a lot of units when we ramp down, then we stand still, and then ramp up again but then we also lose. So it’s better not to ramp up and ramp down a lot,” Volkswagen South Africa Managing Director, Martina Biene, remarked to radio station Algoa FM last week.

According to the February new vehicle sales tabled by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA), a total of 813 Polos were sold in the domestic market compared to the 1 513 examples of the Polo Vivo made at the same factory.

Third model due

At announcing of the two-millionth locally made Polo, Volkswagen revealed at 134 354 units of the current facelift Mk VI Polo had already been made for the local and export markets, with the 200 000 mark projected to be overtaken by mid-2023.

Despite the challenges, sales are set to continue beyond 2025, a year of production is expected to end in Europe. A third model, known only as an SUV-type vehicle, is however to set join the Polo and Polo Vivo at Kariega at some point this year.