Volkswagen (VW) has announced that it began manufacturing the latest Mark-VII Golf at its plant in Puebla, Mexico this week. According to a company press release the start of Golf production at the plant also coincided with the 50th anniversary of VW's operations beginning in Mexico. VW CEO Martin Winterkorn explained that the vast majority of the VW Group's USD7bn investment programme for the North American region between now and 2018 will be focused on the company's Mexican operations. He said, "The start of Golf 7 production will give Volkswagen a big boost in the North America region. And it underscores our commitment to Mexico as an automotive location. That is further confirmed by the USD7bn our Group will be investing in North America in the period to 2018."
Significance: The Mark-VII Golf will be exported from Mexico mostly to the US and Canada, with the former market taking up the vast majority of the plant's production allocation, to which will be added the Golf wagon body style later this year. VW has invested USD700m in new plant and infrastructure related to Golf production at the Puebla plant. VW will be hoping for a significant dividend in terms of boosting its sales in the US market in particular which slumped by 7% last year and a highly accelerated rise which was witnessed in 2012. IHS Automotive forecasts that Golf sales will almost double across the region between 2013 and 2019, with volumes rising from 43,000 units to a forecast 83,000 units.
