The first Volkswagen manufactured in South Africa, a Beetle, rolled off the assembly line on August 31, 1951.

This means the German manufacturer celebrates its seventieth anniversary of producing cars in South Africa this year.

Apart from the Beetle, the plant in Kariega (Uitenhage) has manufactured many vehicles, including the Type 2 Kombi, various Audi models, the Golf (including the iconic Citi Golf), the Polo range and the Polo Vivo.

In August, t

he Eastern Cape plant began manufacturing the latest facelift of the Volkswagen Polo.

Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA) has been the sole manufacturer of all new right-hand-drive Polo hatchbacks since 2010, and is the exclusive producer of the flagship Polo GTI.

The company also achieved a record production year in 2019, when the plant manufactured 161 954 vehicles.

Another milestone came in 2020, when the Volkswagen brand in South Africa achieved a local market share of 21.6% – the highest in the history of VWSA, and the highest market share for Volkswagen worldwide last year.

The Kariega plant reached the four-million-unit production mark in November last year.

Sub-Saharan Africa officially became a part of the VWSA story in March 2017, three months after Volkswagen opened its vehicle assembly facility in Kenya.

Since then, the brand has established assembly facilities in Rwanda (in 2018) and Ghana (in 2020).

Apart from its manufacturing activities, VWSA is also involved in the communities of the wider Nelson Mandela Bay area and other parts of the country.

The Volkswagen Community Trust, which was established in 1989, has, to date, invested R268-million to empower communities in the fields of education and youth development.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has also offered its support to local communities to battle the pandemic.

This has included the establishment of a temporary Covid-19 field hospital, and assisting the National Health Laboratory Service to upgrade and optimise its Gqeberha branch.