Volkswagen Group Africa (VWGA) has completed critical upgrades at its Kariega Plant in South Africa, as part of preparations to introduce a third model, the Volkswagen A0 SUV, to its production line from 2027.
Following a four-week production halt from 14 April to 12 May 2025, the plant has resumed normal operations after implementing key enhancements in the body shop, paint shop, and final assembly areas.
These upgrades pave the way for manufacturing the new sub-four-meter SUV, which will join the Polo and Polo Vivo in Kariega’s production portfolio.
The management has indicated that at this point, about 60 percent of the preparation work in production had already been completed during the December 2024 shutdown.
This work included finalising all installations completed in the body shop, station modifications, and the programming of robots in the paint shop, and modifying conveyors in the final assembly, among other tasks.
With this work completed and production returning to normal, the A0 SUV entry project is now in its commissioning phase. This entails a systematic process of bringing the new equipment online and performing necessary checks to ensure these is functioning optimally.
This is being done over weekends to prevent any disruption to Plant Kariega’s production over three shifts.
The A0 SUV Entry project is an exciting one for Plant Kariega, as VWGA is working closely with colleagues in Volkswagen do Brasil to develop, build, and launch this model.
VWGA Production Director, Ulrich Schwabe, in his remarks, said: “We are happy to be back to normal production, with the knowledge that we are one step closer to our future of building three models in our plant.
I would like to thank every employee who has played a part in the process of preparing for this future icon in our Volkswagen line-up, and I look forward to working with these colleagues, as well as our Brazilian counterparts, as we continue on this journey.”
