The Volkswagen plant in Chakan occupies a total area of over 2.3million square metres (575 Acres), with buildings covering about 115 thousand square metres, which means, the total premises is 2x1kilometres.
A workforce of over 3500 people was engaged in building during its peak construction stages. The plant was built with an investment commitment of INR 3800 Crores (580 million Euros) by Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd. It is the largest investment by a German company to date in the Indian growth market
Production
The plant has a production capacity of 110,000 vehicles a year. The construction of the plant commenced in 2007 and has been built in a record time of 17 months.
The Hon’ble Governor of Maharashtra His Excellency Shri. S. C. Jamir and Prof. Dr. Jochem Heizmann, officially inaugurated the new plant on March 31st, 2009 in the presence of nearly 500 international guests.
The Pune plant is one of the most modern in the Volkswagen Group. It has a high level of vertical integration and a large share of local suppliers. The facility is the only production plant operated by a German automaker in India that covers the entire production process from press shop through body shop and paint shop to final assembly.
The facility uses futuristically designed state-of-the-art equipment. For example, the Body shop uses the Diode Laser Brazing (DLB) technology, whereas the Roof & Side Framer laser technology is used for welding the roof to the body of the car. The facility is also one of the few environment friendly manufacturing plants around the area. For Example, the Exhaust of the Paint shop is re-burnt and the resultant heat and energy is reused.
Full-fledged production has taken off at the plant with the production of the Skoda Fabia in May 2009, followed by a Polo based model in December 2009.
Workforce
Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd., in its commitment towards the economic development of the state of Maharashtra, plans to hire 2500 skilled employees.
