Volkswagen has announced that it plans to start production of the Polo Vivo – South Africa’s best-selling passenger vehicle – in Kenya towards the end of 2016.
An agreement to this effect was signed in Nairobi this week by the Kenyan government and Thomas Schaefer, chairman and managing director of Volkswagen South Africa.
The Polo Vivo – essentially a prolonged lifecycle model built on the previous generation Polo platform – will be assembled in the city of Thika near Nairobi. The project, set to be “jointly realised” with importer DT Dobie, will be Volkswagen’s third production facility in Africa. It will join the South African factory in Uitenhage and a local production facility in Nigeria.
VW says the Kenyan plant has the goal of putting together 5 000 units of the Polo Vivo per year from 2017.
“We are taking the successful Polo Vivo from South Africa to Kenya to leverage the enormous growth potential of the African automobile market and participate in its positive development,” said Schaefer.
“This compact model is the best-selling car in the Sub-Saharan region – so it is the ideal entry model for the promising Kenyan market. With this move, we are strengthening the brand’s overall position in Africa and taking an important step towards expanding our commitment in the region,” Schaefer added.
There are also plans to establish a local training centre to qualify production workers and provide further training. The centre will initially focus on the needs of the Volkswagen production team, before broadening to provide general industrial skills.
Of course, this won’t be the first time Volkswagen has had production operations in Kenya, with the Beetle having been assembled in that country in the 1960s. Interestingly, Volkswagen says it plans to “review local production of further Volkswagen models should the new vehicle market show positive development”, leaving the door open for more models to be assembled in Kenya.
