In Anting Shanghai, China at No.3 Plant in late November 2003, key Volkswagen board member Dr. Folker Weissgerber Head of Production for Volkswagen AG and key Shanghai (now SAIC) Volkswagen board members Hu Mao Yuan Vice President, Chen Zhi Xin General Manager, and Bernd Engelstaedter Technical Director, were gathered as the first Polo sedan came off-line marked for export to Australia.
This was Shanghai Volkswagen's first international engineering project. This included it's first (and only) right-hand drive contract for Volkswagen Group Australia. The Polo model line was the fourth line for Shanghai Volkswagen to produces after the Santana, Santana 2000, and Passat models since its 1983 beginnings.
Shanghai Volkswagen engineered the Polo sedan to adhere to over thirty Australian Design Rules standards and Dr. Folker Weissgerber was quoted as saying that the Polo "meets all international standards." and went further when he said, "This proves Shanghai Volkswagen is a truly international competitor." Bernd Engelstaedter backed that up when a reporter asked how competitive China will be "It's just a question of time. The Chinese market is developing very quickly." he stated.
The Polo (Classic) sedan at the Launch Ceremony had the Chinese script for Volkswagen's Shanghai Automotive joint venture partner. "Australians might not be able to read the Chinese characters," said Chen Zhi Xin. The script would be removed ahead of the Australian launch.
At the 2004 Melbourne Motor Show in March, Volkswagen launched the Polo Classic in Australia with a Chinese dancing girl. Not only did this signify the first Chinese Volkswagen sold outside China but also the first Chinese passenger vehicle to be sold to a developed market. The Polo Classic was priced from AUD $23,990 with its 1.6L 74kW engine mated with a manual transmission and came standard with ABS with EBD, Front and Side Airbags, 8 speaker CD Sound system, Semi-Automatic Air-conditioning and 432L Boot Capacity.
“Australia is roughly the same time zone as China. We have a mature, international automotive market with complex local homologation procedures and geographically challenging remote capital cities, so it all came together very well for us to be the first export destination from the Shanghai plant - to provide a ‘trial run’ for future larger export programs both here and to other countries,” said Volkswagen Group Australia managing director Peter Nochar.
Later he said, “When I first saw the Polo sedan in Germany I noticed it was a very good-looking car that would be an excellent supplement to our Polo hatchback range and then, when we were advised the car could be the historic first export from China, a ‘small car’ became a ‘big story’ in the Volkswagen world.”
The initial plan was for 600 units annually over 5 years, 3000 units in total. Unfortunately at launch, the Polo Classic was only available in manual transmission with the automatic arriving in August 2004, due to logistical issues. Furthermore, the Polo Classic was tested by 'The Australian' newspaper and received an unfavorable review due to questionable build quality. This 'trial run' unfortunately did not meet sales targets and was subsequently stopped in 2005.
The author has estimated that only around 250 examples may only have been sold in Australia in the 2004 to 2005 period. From VIN number data collated via sales websites. The Polo Classic (sedan) is determined by the 11th number in the VIN code is a '2' for Anting, Shanghai production. The author has found VIN number 13 to 233 on sales sites since research started.
Since this initial project, SAIC Volkswagen has now expanded recently in supplying the Philippines in 2018 as the second market outside of the Australian trial in 2004 with numerous models from the Chinese range such as Santana, Lavida, Lamando, and Tiguan. These models have succeeded and the project for international sales will continue with more South East Asian countries potentially in the expansion plan in the near future.
Images SAIC Volkswagen, CarsGuide, and authors.
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