Volkswagen to close factory in China for the first time

Volkswagen, together with the Chinese concern SAIC Motor, decided to close the plant in Nanjing, China. Production at the enterprise has already been stopped, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported on July 11, citing its sources.

The plant is scheduled to close by the end of the year. Production will be moved to a site in nearby Yizhen. It is emphasized that for the automaker from Wolfsburg, this is the first case of a complete closure of the enterprise in China. At the end of 2024, Volkswagen and SAIC left the joint venture's factory in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, but it was not closed, but sold to the Shanghai Motor Vehicle Inspection Center.

The factory is located in the heart of the Jiangning Economic and Technological Development Zone, an industrial park near the center of the nine-million-strong Nanjing metropolis. According to the newspaper, the proximity to a densely populated center made it difficult for both the reconstruction and logistics of the enterprise. And switching to the production of electric vehicles would be expensive and inefficient, the publication clarifies.

The Volkswagen and SAIC plant in Nanjing was opened in 2008 and was initially designed to produce 360,000 vehicles per year. Among other things, we produced Volkswagen Passat and Skoda Superb.

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