VOLKSWAGEN’S New Small Family of cars, the so-called Up! series, to be assembled in the company’s Bratislava factory, has entered its implementation phase. The chairman of the board of directors of VW Slovakia, Andreas Tostmann, laid the foundation stone for the project and announced that modifications will be made to several parts of the current factory, the SITA newswire reported.
About 1,800 people will be involved in construction work and installation of technology and as many as 7,000 jobs are expected to be created in companies serving as suppliers and sub-suppliers, with over half of those jobs in Slovakia.
Prime Minister Robert Fico called the New Small Family project a “quite natural gift” for the 20th anniversary of VW Slovakia coming to the Slovak Republic. The prime minister said that the automaker is meeting the cabinet’s concept of employment and top-quality job creation and the company is fulfilling its own goals, SITA reported.
The €308 million investment will create about 1,500 new jobs in the Bratislava factory. The first three- and five-door cars, which will be manufactured under the VW, Škoda and SEAT brands, should roll off the assembly lines in 2011. Full production capacity should be achieved in the following year. On the whole, the annual output of VW Slovakia should grow to 400,000 cars.
Volkswagen Slovakia officially presented the new series of family cars in early June. The Slovak government approved investment aid in the form of a tax allowance exceeding €14 million in December 2008.
Volkswagen operates in Slovakia via its affiliated manufacturing and assembly plant on the outskirts of Bratislava.
