Always glorious to call everyone for a celebration. Volkswagen India celebrated the roll-out of 500,000 lakh from its Pune facility in India. The car with 500,000 number is painted red and is a Polo GT TSI (high-performance variant) fuelled by a petrol engine with a 7-speed DSG gearbox, manufactured for the domestic market. The journey of Volkswagen India at its Pune manufacturing facility dates back to March 2009. And since then without stopping the maker had attained this height of business.
Working on the statistics, Volkswagen India has sold more than 400,000 cars in the domestic and 32-export markets around the world since the factory turned operational. Vento & Polo in both left and right hand drive trims are produced, alongside the Skoda Rapid. Skoda Fabia was also manufactured at this same assembly line of Pune once it was in production.
Spawned across 572 acres of land in Chakan, near Pune, VW’s India production bay includes a body shop,a paint shop and an assembly bay. The whole facility is systemized to produce 200,000 units a year running in two-shifts, but presently it is rolling out only 130,000 units (which mean 430/day) in couple of shifts, all thanks to the soaked market demand. Approximately 3,200 employees are associated (indirect and direct both) with the process of car manufacturing, says VW. Apart from the domestic market, cars produced here are sold to 32 different countries in 3 continents, namely North America, Asia and Africa.
Volkswagen Pune Plant Chronicles:
March 2009: Inauguration of Volkswagen Pune Plant, and Fabia was rolled out
December 2009: Production of Polo commenced
August 2010: Production of Vento commenced
December 2010: Production for exports to South Africa commenced
July 2011: 100,000th car rolled out
October 2011: Production of Rapid commenced
July 2012: Production of left-hand drive vehicles commenced
October 2013: Production for exports to Mexico commenced
April 2014: 50,000th export car rolled out
December 2014: 111,444 units produced in a year – the highest number of cars ever produced during a year at the Pune Plant; the same month 100,000th export car was also produced
19 May 2015: 500,000th car rolled out
