VW Up Production to Create 8,500 Jobs

Volkswagen's new Up small car will be an important addition to the company's product lineup but will also represent a very important move for the auto sector as it is believed to create around 8,500 jobs. Volkswagen said that approximately 1,500 workers will be directly connected to Up production while 7,000 will hold indirect jobs by 2011, just-auto.com informed today.

Furthermore, Volkswagen started expanding the local plant this week, a move that will also create 1,800 temporary jobs in the region. The plant is already building VW Touareg, Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and Skoda Octavia but, similar to other facilities across Europe, had to lower capacity in 2009 due to low demand.

An interesting report that surfaced in July claimed that building the Up would cost Volkswagen only 900 euro, despite the fact that the German parent manufacturer intends to sell it for around 9,000 euro, or even less if we are to trust various media reports.

"Our team at Volkswagen in Slovakia is ideally prepared to provide the flexibility required for the production of the New Small Family. Four brands are already produced successfully under one roof at our plant in Bratislava today,” Professor Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, said back in July before the German brand officially announced Slovakia as the host of its new Up model.

Volkswagen Up was officially showcased to the general public at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany and mass production is slated to begin in the first months of the next year.