VW sells 5 million cars in China

Volkswagen are celebrating five million car sales in China during 25 years of manufacturing.

We hear ever day how big the car market is in China. So big, in fact, that it will soon become the biggest car market in the world. And every car maker is jumping on the bandwagon to sell and produce cars in China. JLR are looking at the possibilities after big sales to China this year  and Saab is eyeing up the Chinese market with relish now it has a Chinese partner on board.

But some car makers saw the future long before the rest. Volkswagen has been making cars in China for 25 years in collaboration with Chinese partner SAIC. And 25 years ago China was a very different place to the country it is now, so it was a brave move and a big risk for VW at the time.

But that long-standing presence in the Chines market is really paying dividends now. VW has just announced that it has hit the five million car mark in China. Which with a population the size of China’s may seem like a drop in the ocean, but it’s a huge number of sales in comparison to almost every other Western car maker.

As an indication of how quickly the Chinese car market is growing it’s worth noting that it took VW until 1998 to sell the first million cars. They’d got that up to four million by 2008, which means they’ve sold a very impressive one million cars in China in the last eighteen months.

But VW aren’t resting on their laurels. They’re investing a further 4 billion Euros in China in the next two years to expand their presence, which already includes four production plants, an engine plant, a tech centre and a design centre, which currently produce eleven different VW and Skoda models.The five-millionth car produced is a Skoda Superb.

And the VW / Auto Union world domination plan rolls on.

Source: China Car Times