By Otsile Kadiege

On Tuesday 25^th of January 2022 Volkswagen South Africa’s local manufacturing plant at Kariega, formerly known as Uitenhage, achieved a milestone of 100,000^th Polo Vivo to roll of the production line, which comes in just over four years after the plant began manufacturing the current Vivo model in 2018. Before this, VWSA built the first generation Vivo from 2010 to 2017, with a total of 254,683 units built in this generation. This means the plant has built just over 354,000 Vivos to date.

The SA exclusive 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 during the first generation and 98,563 of the current model (up until December 2021).

The best annual sales performance for the current Vivo model was recorded in 2019 when VWSA sold a total of 29,618 Vivos in one year. In terms of monthly performance, the Vivo proved most popular in October 2018, when 3,009 Vivos were sold in a single month.

The Vivo is one of two vehicles currently 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.