Volkswagen to build 300,000 unit plant in China

May 14, 2013: German carmaker, Volkswagen AG is building another plant in China along with a Chinese partner, SAIC. According to German newspaper Frankfurter Allegmeine, the facility will come up in Hunan, the home province of Mao Tse-tung. An announcement is expected soon.

The plant in the provincial capital Changsha will have a capacity of 300,000 vehicles a year. The Chinese partner for the joint venture is likely to be the state carmaker SAIC from Shanghai. Start of production is planned for 2016.

The German newspaper seems to suggest that investments in the new location will be 10 billion yuan (1.23 billion euros/Rs 8,758 crore). That would be about 12 percent of the total investment of 9.8 billion euros (Rs 69,785 crore) that Volkswagen China from 2013 to 2015 plans. At the AGM in April, CEO Martin Winterkorn said that in 2020 China would probably sell more than 20 million cars.