Volkswagen Group is to adjust its European plant-product mix led by changes in commercial vehicle operations and greater production flexibility at its plants due to increased modularisation.

The successor to the Volkswagen Crafter van is to be produced in Poland from 2016. For this purpose, a new plant, which is to be commissioned in the second half of 2016, will be built at Wrzesnia. With the new plant, the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand will be creating at least 2,300 new jobs, VW says.

The Volkswagen Tiguan is to be assembled in Hanover in addition to Wolfsburg from 2016. The next generation of the Porsche Panamera is to be produced entirely in Leipzig.

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“With the decision to produce the Crafter in Poland, we have laid the foundations for the strategic reorientation of our light commercial vehicles,” said Dr. Leif Östling, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft responsible for commercial vehicles.

He added: “The Crafter is outstandingly well-suited for all the growth markets of the world and will take Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles a stage forward on its way to becoming a globally active manufacturer.”

The new plant at Wrzesnia is located about 50 km to the east of Poznan and will be the second location of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in Poland in addition to the plant at Poznan, where Caddy urban delivery vans have already rolled off the production line for more than a decade. Dr. Eckhard Scholz, Speaker of the Management Board of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, commented: “Our experience with the production of the Caddy in Poland has been excellent. And the region around Wrzesnia offers ideal economic, infrastructure and labor market policy conditions for us.”

The area of the future plant will be about 220 hectares and the plant will consist of a body shop, a paint shop and a final assembly unit. Construction is scheduled to start at the end of 2014 with the start of production following in the fourth quarter of 2016.

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From 2016, capacity at the Hanover plant is to be used for the assembly of additional Volkswagen Tiguan vehicles on the basis of the Modular Transverse Matrix engineering architecture.

VW says the reorganisation of the current plant allocation underlines the high flexibility the Volkswagen Group achieves through the gradual modularisation of new and existing plants.

That, VW says, also applies to Porsche. From 2016, the sports car brand will be producing the complete next-generation Panamera in Leipzig. Since its market introduction in 2009, body shells for the Panamera have been produced and painted at the Volkswagen plant in Hanover before being shipped to the Porsche plant in Saxony for pre-assembly and final assembly.

With the reorganisation of the Volkswagen Group production system, body production and painting for the Panamera is to start in Leipzig from 2016. The company already owns land that can be used for the expansion of the plant, VW says.