Volkswagen today officially announced that it will start production at its new chakan (near pune )plant. With an annual production capacity of 110,000 vehicles, the pune plant is built at an investment of Rs 3,800 crore. Volkswagen will build Skoda Fabia, new Polo and a polo based sedan at the new plant. “The Pune plant will begin building the Skoda Fabia compact car in May,” a VW statement said. “Production of a hatchback version of the Volkswagen Polo specially developed for the Indian market will be added from 2010,” the statement added. Chakan plant sports a flexible assembly line which means Volkswagen Group brands – Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen will make a range of cars here. “Thanks to the local production of Volkswagen and Skoda models in Pune, we will benefit even more from enormous growth on the Indian automobile market in future,” VW board member Jochem Heizmann said at the opening ceremony.
What it means to you: Once Volkswagen ramps up production at the Chakan plant, localisation levels for the Fabia will be up to 50 per cent in three years from the present 15 per cent. Result, you can expect a more VFM (value for money) Fabia soon.
