SA reaches production milestone of 100,000 VW Polo Vivo cars

Volkswagen SA celebrated a production milestone this week, with the 100,000th unit of the current Polo Vivo rolling off the production line at the plant in Kariega.

This milestone, which was achieved on Tuesday, comes in just over four years after the plant began manufacturing the current Vivo model in 2018. Before that, VWSA built the first generation Vivo from 2010-2017, with a total of 254,683 units built in this generation. This means the plant has built just more than 354,000 Vivos to date.

The Vivo is built exclusively in Kariega for the SA market. In turn, SA consumers have shown their appreciation consistently for this uniquely SA vehicle: the Vivo has been the best-selling vehicle in the passenger car market every year since its introduction in 2010.

A total of 350,289 Vivos have been sold between 2010 and 2021, of which 251,726 were sold during the first generation and 98,563 of the current model (up until December). The best annual sales performance for the current Vivo model was recorded in 2019 when VWSA sold a total of 29,618 units in one year.

In terms of monthly performance, the Vivo proved most popular in October 2018, when 3,009 units were sold. The Vivo is one of two vehicles now being built at the Kariega plant, the other being the Volkswagen Polo. The Polos built in Kariega are exported to all right-hand-drive markets worldwide, while VWSA also supplements production for left-hand-drive markets.