Volkswagen South Africa says it expects to produce 133 000 vehicles at its Uitenhage plant in 2018, up from 110 000 in 2017.
This year, the local arm of the Wolfsburg-based brand plans to export 83 000 of those units to various global markets, including some left-hand drive countries (particularly now that the Polo GTI will also be built in SA).
Maximum annual capacity of some 160 000 units is expected to be reached in 2019, thanks to the addition of a third shift from April. This comes after the automaker invested a total of R6,1-billion (since 2015) in its new products, the plant and suppliers.
Interestingly, the new Polo and the upcoming new Polo Vivo (which will be launched in February) are produced on the same line, despite the fact that they run on vastly different platforms.
