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FAW-Volkswagen Chengdu Factory held its commissioning ceremony last week.
General manager An Tiecheng said "350,000 autos in Stage I and II of the FAW-Volkswagen Chengdu Factory have been put smoothly into operation, which is several months ahead of schedule."
FAW-Volkswagen announced last week for the first time that it would produce Grade-B vehicles and four-wheel drives. They even said they would establish an Audi branch in the future, which differs from the previous positioning of the Chengdu base, which was initially planned to solely manufacture economic vehicles.
The factory can manufacture 350,000 vehicles at one time, whereas initially, the target was meant to be achieved in two stages. Currently, the daily output of two shifts has reached 150 vehicles and that will soon increase to 180 vehicles. The third factory possesses four processes, i.e. stamping, welding, coating and assembly. and the overall automation rate has been above 60 percent.
One insider from FAW-Volkswagen indicated that although the advanced degree of the factory here is not as high as that in the second factory of FAW-Volkswagen in Changchun, the third factory has reached the most advanced level of the group in terms of environmental protection.
It is said that other A-grade vehicles of FAW-Volkswagen such as the Golf can also be produced here alongside the new Jetta and Sagitar. Although it will not come into the market until March next year, new Sagitar NCS has received small commissions. "We plan to increase the daily output of Sagitar to 800 by May next year", said one insider from the Chengdu factory.
The commissioning of the project in Stage I and II is just the beginning. Tiecheng indicated that Stage III of the project at FAW-Volkswagen Chengdu factory had started this year and it was planned to put into operation in 2013. By then, the overall output of Chengdu factory would increase from 350,000 to 450,000. "Besides A-grade vehicles and A0-grade vehicles, Chengdu factory will also produce B-grade vehicles, four-wheel drives and hybrid electric cars, and even Audi branded vehicles in the future".
The insider also said that the Chengdu base currently focuses on A-grade vehicles but it would not limit to that only. The layout of FAW-Volkswagen in Chengdu mainly concentrates on the development potential of the auto market in the western area.
According to Tiecheng, "Chengdu factory will reserve production preparation for multi-platform vehicles in the future and will produce B-grade vehicles. The planning output of Audi branded cars in 2015 is 700,000 vehicles. Out of that number, 450,000 will be produced in Changchun and 250,000 will be from either Foshan or Chengdu".