Volkswagen Pune plant achieves best output results
02 Jan 2016
German carmaker Volkswagen's Pune plant has achieved its best production results since it started manufacturing cars about seven years ago. In 2015, the plant rolled out 123,456 cars from the production facility in Chakan. This was 12,012 units or 10 per cent more than in 2014.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Andreas Lauermann, president and managing director, Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd, said, ''Volkswagen's Pune plant has increased its production for the third year in a row. This has been possible because of the increased demand from both the domestic and export markets.''
He added, ''Unfortunately, the global emission topic slowed down our development in the second half of the year and held us back from an even better result. With the new compact sedan, we have a new car in the production pipeline which will help us in carrying the pace forward in 2016 too.''
Going by numbers, the total production of 123,456 cars at Volkswagen's Pune plant included approximately 72,000 Volkswagen Vento cars, 38,800 Volkswagen Polo cars and 12,700 Škoda Rapid cars.
The domestic production grew strongly with an increase of approximately 23 per cent to approximately 54,140 units while the export production maintained its strong base with a growth of 4 per cent to 69,300 units in 2015 as compared to 2014.
The highlights of 2015 included showcasing of 'Made-in-India' Volkswagen Vento at the Hannover Messe 2015 in front of the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel; the start of production of the new Volkswagen Vento; and the addition of important export markets such as Argentina.
To date, Volkswagen's Pune plant has rolled out over 575,000 cars since the start of production in March 2009. ''The credit for this success of Volkswagen India goes to all of our employees. They have been working hard day by day to ensure that highest quality cars are produced at our plant for India as well as for over 35 export markets across four continents. The results of 2015 are a proof of the high capability of the workforce at our plant'', said Lauermann.