VW China may stop making Santana, Jetta by 2010

Shanghai, July 31 (Gasgoo.com) Volkswagen AG may replace the current generation Santana and Jetta with new car models by the end of this decade, a senior official from Volkswagen's China operations said recently.

Dr. Zhang Suixin, Managing Director of Volkswagen (China) Investment Co told the Beijing-based Jinghua newspaper in an interview that the automaker had delayed its plan to give up the two models repeatedly because there's still huge demand for them in the Chinese market.

Santana built by Shanghai VW, and the Jetta model produced by FAW VW remain the two best-selling cars in China in the first half, with sales of 122,147 and 109,547 respectively.

Volkswagen plans to raise its production capacity in China through productivity improvement. The automaker opened a new factory in Nanjing in April with a capacity of 60,000 vehicles a year. Its total China capacity is 1.11 million currently.