After more than 30 years of building Audis at its Uitenhage plant, Volkswagen SA has discontinued the sole remaining A4 assembly line.
Volkswagen SA has discontinued its Audi assembly line in Uitenhage, bringing an end to more than 30 years of producing the marque in SA.
Volkswagen SA Communications Manager Matt Gennrich said yesterday that the company would not lay off any of its workforce. All the Audi workers would be moved to the Golf 4 assembly line. All Audis will in future be distributed in South Africa as fully built-up imported vehicles.
Gennrich said VWSA would remain committed to the export contract for its Golf 4s to Europe, while taking advantage of opportunities to increase the export of automotive components sourced largely from Eastern Cape.
The company has been importing the Audi A3, A6, S3 and Audi TT. The A4 was assembled at the Uitenhage plant.
However, the A4 model was a low-volume model recording average sales of about 500 units a month. It was replaced two weeks ago by a newly-launched A4, which is expected to compete with the BMW 3-Series and the Mercedes Benz C-Class. The company hopes to achieve five per cent market share from the current 2,5 per cent with the new model.
The company will continue with four assembly lines, which includes Citi Golf, Golf 4 and Jetta 4, Polo Playa and Classic, and the T3 Microbus.
The move is in line with government’s objectives in the Motor Industry Development Programme, which encourages car manufacturers to reduce the number of low-volume platforms. Manufacturers that assemble units on two platforms and produce high-volume exports earn export credits on cars exported, with the benefit of diluting import costs on low-volume models.
