Roll-out ceremony

Executives from Sino-German joint venture Shanghai Volkswagen Automobile Co and its two parent groups pose last Thursday at a grand ceremony for its 25th anniversary and its 5 millionth vehicle to roll off the production line, a Skoda Superb sedan. In the first three quarters of this year, sales of the first and biggest Sino-foreign passenger car partnership surged by 40 percent year-on-year to 524,654 units, exceeding its sales in the whole of 2008. Boosted by the strong growth, Shanghai Volkswagen is edging closer to becoming the first single passenger car company in China to sell 1 million units annually. With a registered capital of 11.5 billion yuan and more than 17,000 workers, the company also makes the Volkswagen Santana, Passat, Polo, Touran and Lavida, as well as the Skoda Fabia and Octavia.

(China Daily 10/19/2009 page6)