Shanghai-VW, the 25 year old partnership between Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) and Volkswagen celebrated the founding of the joint venture which has lasted twenty five years and also celebrated the production of their five millionth car produced together.

Shanghai VW was established 1984, and was one of the first automotive pioneers to see the Chinese auto market as an awakening beast. By 1998 Shanghai-VW had produced its first one million vehicles in China, and by June 2002 it had produced two million vehicles. As the market continued to rapidly expand, by January 2008 Shanghai-VW had already reached 4 million cars.

Shanghai-VW are well on with plans to invest a further 4 billion Euros into the Chinese market place between 2009 and 2011 to further VW’s market share in the Chinese market place. Shanghai-VW currently has four production plants under its belt, one engine plant, a tech center, and a design center. Shanghai VW currently produces a range of eleven vehicles; two versions of the Polo, the Polo Crossover, Lavida, Santana, Santana Vista, Passat and Touran, and all vehicles from the Skoda China brand, which is made up of the Octavia, Fabia, and recently launched Superb.

The all important five millionth car was a Skoda Superb which has only just been put into production by Shanghai-VW.