VWSA builds 100,000 Polos for SA market at Kariega factory

VWSA production director Ulrich Schwabe and sales and marketing director Thomas Milz celebrating the 100,000th Polo | image supplied

The Kariega plant has been building the current Polo since January 2018 and began production of the facelifted Polo in August 2021. Of the 100,000 vehicles, 80,644 were pre-facelift Polos and the remaining 19,356 were facelift Polo models.

VWSA celebrated several Polo milestones in 2022, reaching its one-millionth Polo built for export in May 2022, the 500,000th Polo (including the facelift and the model launched in 2018) in July 2022, and the 100,000 facelift Polo produced in August 2022. More recently, the company celebrated two million units of its popular Polos and Polo Vivos in November 2022.

VWSA currently builds the Polo Vivo for the local market and the Polo for all right-hand-drive markets and certain left-hand-drive markets. The Kariega plant is also the sole manufacturer worldwide of the Polo GTI.

“Though the majority of our Polos are built for export markets, we are incredibly proud of how popular this vehicle is among South African customers,” said Ulrich Schwabe, production director at VWSA.

“This includes our employees, who build these high-quality vehicles with pride, and whose dedication and love for our vehicles has made this milestone possible.”