VW Spain Plant Gearing for ʼ17 Addition of Small CUV

MADRID – Volkswagen will assemble a new, small urban CUV at its Landaben plant in Northern Spain beginning in 2018.

Javier Garcia Sanz, VW global vice president-purchases, won’t confirm media reports the new model will share the automaker’s MQB0 platform with the new-generation Polo going into production in 2017 at Landaben, and with the SEAT Ibiza and Ibiza CUV also to be assembled starting next year at VW’s Martorell plant near Barcelona, followed in 2018 by the Audi A1.

Volkswagen’s moves appear to show the German automaker is trying to concentrate production of smaller models at its Spanish plants.

To prepare the Landaben facility for production of the next-gen Polo and the new so-called Polo CUV, VW will use a portion of the €900 million ($1 billion) set aside for its Spanish operations until 2019. At the same time, a €3.3 billion ($3.7 billion) investment was earmarked for its Spain-based SEAT subsidiary.

VW in early March reached new labor agreements with the unions representing Landaben workers, which Garcia Sanz had said were crucial to assigning the new CUV to the plant near Pamplona.

Landaben has assembled more than 7 million Polos and 2016 builds are projected at 295,000, but management and union officials recognized producing a single model was a risk owing to sudden changes in market trends.

The unions believe addition of the Polo CUV could expand Landaben’s 4,500-member workforce by 300-500 employees. General Manager Emilio Saenz has not confirmed this but says the plant’s future is guaranteed until at least 2025.