FAW-VW sees sales of VW cars soar 35% in 2009

Shanghai, December 28 (Gasgoo.com) FAW-Volkswagen recently announced that full-year sales of its Volkswagen-badge cars in 2009 will grow at least 35% over last year to around 527,000 units, China Daily reported today.

In the first 11 months, FAW-VW, a 50-50 joint venture between FAW Group and Volkswagen AG, sold a total of 616,509 Volkswagen cars and Audi cars, up 31.9% from a year earlier. The venture sold more than 390,000 VW cars and some 120,000 Audi cars last year.

"Sales of our Volkswagen brand will continue robust growth of more than 20% next year," said Hu Yong, FAW-VW's vice-president for sales and marketing, adding that the company is likely to meet the goal of selling 1 million cars of the two brands by 2013, five years ahead of schedule.

Yet the company now faces a big problem with capacity constraints. FAW-VW currently has two auto plants in northeast China's Changchun city with a combined annual capacity of 660,000 vehicles. Those facilities are expected to boost production to 750,000 or 800,000 units.

The joint venture began construction in May on a 5-billion-yuan ($732 mln), 150,000-unit plant in Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan province. The new factory will start operation at the end of next year, with its long-term capacity set to reach 350,000 cars. 

Set up in 1991, FAW-VW now produces a wide range of Volkswagen models, including the Jetta, Bora, Golf, Caddy, Sagitar and Magotan. It also makes the Audi A6L, A4L and Q5.