‘Polo-Train’ for Volkswagen South Africa Uitenhage factory tours
Just as with its other manufacturing plants, Volkswagen runs a factory tour around its Uitenhage production site in South Africa. Visitors can watch the factory produce the two best-selling cars in the country – the Polo and Polo Vivo. However, the cars being made aren’t the only Polo-related link – the visitors see the whole production process from the seat of a ‘Polo-Train’. The factory tour vehicle uses leftover fifth-generation Polo 6R parts, creating a three-carriage train in which passengers sit to take in the sights, sounds, and smells of a modern car production plant.
Custom built by two Volkswagen Motorsport employees using recycled and unused car parts from the factory, the ‘Polo-Train’ took over three months to complete, with each car taking 30 days to build. Johnny Allen and Cobus Barnard used spare parts from the motorsport workshop as well as the Uitenhage plant. ‘We spent most of the time designing, sourcing parts and manufacturing the cars,’ explained Barnard, who has been with Volkswagen for 10 years.
‘We used left over paint from the rally cars, spare nuts and bolts as well trim off-cuts to deck out the cars. We built the chassis out of old tyre racks, which we cut in required lengths. The side panels and doors were moulded from scrapped parts from the factory,’ added Barnard. The factory tour ‘Polo-Train’ can seat 21 people, and is pulled by an electric motor. Matt Gennrich, General Manager of Communications at Volkswagen Group South Africa said: ‘We hope the vehicle will give our visitors a comfortable and memorable tour of our facility where we build world-class cars.’
‘We were initially planning to outsource the project, but we changed our minds after realising we have vast amount of experience in the company which we can tap on for our ambitious project. The decision to use internal expertise saved the company money and delivered world-class, quality work that we are very proud of,’ Gennrich continued. He hoped that the vehicle will be helpful in speeding up the factory tours especially with the senior citizens that can struggle to walk around the site.
In the past five years, nearly 43 000 people have visited the Volkswagen manufacturing factory. The Uitenhage factory tours take place during weekdays. There are two tours on Monday to Thursday at 09h00 and 12h00. On Friday, there is only one tour at 09h00. Bookings can be made through the Volkswagen AutoPavilion on (041) 994 5941/3. The visit includes the tour of the AutoPavilion, where some of the Volkswagen South Africa classic cars are on display.
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