Celebrations as the 11,111,111th Polo leaves the production line
Another Polo milestone was reached today, as the 11,111,111th unit of Volkswagen’s best-seller left the production line at the company’s new Pune plant in India. The Flash Red model left the assembly line and was welcomed by Jochem Heizmann, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG with responsibility for Group Production, German President Horst Köhler, Jörg Müller, President and Managing Director of Volkswagen Group India, and John Chacko, Technical Director of Volkswagen India (pictured, from left to right above).
The new Polo commenced production at the high-tech Pune facility in December 2009 and the variant produced there was specially designed for the local market, so differs slightly in specification to models manufactured in Europe. The €580m plant is the largest investment by a German company in India, has an annual production capacity of 110,000 vehicles and also makes the variants of the current Škoda Fabia.
Heizmann emphasised that, ‘The Polo built at the Pune plant demonstrates that excellent vehicles are created when German engineering prowess interacts perfectly with Indian skills. We are determined to bring the Polo’s European success story to India.’ Celebrating the latest Polo production milestone since the model’s introduction in 1975, he continued, ‘Volkswagen will tap its opportunities in India with vehicles like the Polo, our modern plant in Pune and a highly-motivated workforce.’
