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Volkswagen Polo rolls out of the energy efficient Yizheng plant in Shanghai

The Chinese arm of the Volkswagen Group - Shanghai Volkswagen has rolled out the first Volkswagen Polo small car at Yizheng in Shanghai recently. This plant is strategic for the German car maker as it is the one that will be supplying Volkswagen cars to China. Giving job opportunities to over 3700 employees, the Volkswagen plant in Shanghai is situated around 300 km North West of the capital. This is one of the largest Volkswagen facilities in the world and it has an in house testing centre besides an energy centre as well as training centre to train the employees in house.

Currently, the plant is producing Polo cars but soon it is expected to build Skoda cars as well and this will lead to Volkswagen group’s stronger presence in the world’s most happening market China. A sooner production of China specific Skoda Rapid is what is on the cards as the Rapid is expected to be launched in China soon. An early 2013 launch is what some of the reports suggest. This facility spread in over 1.3 million sq meters is also one of the most important plants of the car group.

Yizheng plant is also special for the VW Group as it is one of the most energy efficient plants the group has. It has been structurally designed in a way to conserve electricity and save energy. Some of the means to make this facility more energy efficient are solar panels, use of e bikes and transfer trucks that run on batteries, special heating and cooling mechanism using geothermal energy. The car Group hopes to make it as a model and will adopt some or many of the energy conservation means at its other plants as well. Meanwhile, the plant will also be made energy by 25 percent more in the coming six years.