Volkwagen to start building new budget model in Kaluga in mid-2012
MOSCOW. March 17 (Interfax) - German automaker Volkswagen is looking begin the production of new low-cost model at its plant in Kaluga in middle of next year, Marcus Osegowitsch, general director of Volkswagen Group Rus, told the press Thursday on the sidelines of an automotive forum organized by the Adam Smith Institute in Moscow.
"The new model in Kaluga will appear in the middle of 2010," Osegowitsch said. It will be built on the Polo sedan platform, which is already being used in production, he said.
Prior to last autumn, the plant in Kaluga was building 24 Skoda, Volkswagen, and Audi models by SKD (semi-knocked-down) assembly, and since then has been making four models of two makes: the Skoda Octavia and Fabia, and the VW Tiguan and Polo sedan in full production cycle, as well as the VW Touareg and Multivan by SKD assembly. The factory might launch production of a new-model Tiguan this year. Roughly half the plant's output is VW and the other roughly half - Skoda.
Investment in the plant itself totaled EUR 570 million, and the project in its entirety - EUR 774 million.
Volkswagen Group Rus increased sales on the Russian market last year by almost 40% to around 130,400 automobiles, of which more than 95,000 were built at the Kaluga plant.