FIRST KENYAN MADE VOLKSWAGEN POLO VIVO HITS STATE CORPORATIONS FLEET.
Great things come in small packages.The first Kenyan made Polo Vivo that rolled off the production line in 2016 at #KenyaVehicleManufacturers (KVM) assembly plant in Thika has hit postal corporations fleets of delivery & sales vehicles.
DT Dobie has looked at the government to boost sales of the Polo Vivo, with bureaucrats having announced that the State had committed to buy 300 of the hatchbacks each year to promote its local assembly.
Motor dealer #DTDobie has stepped up its bid to wrest market share from used car sellers who account for total vehicle sales by touting the new vehicle as a better alternative to used, imported cars.
Volkswagen announced in September this 2016, its return to vehicle production in Kenya in partnership with DT Dobie after a 40 year absence. They used to manufacture the Beetle here back in the 60’s up until 1977. The initial focus on the #PoloVivo brand is because the car is the bestselling VW model in Africa at the moment. However, other car models might be in the pipeline as the new car market develops in Kenya. Annual production at the new production plant will be 1,000 vehicles with a long term plan of increasing to 5,000 vehicles.
The Kenyan production facility is VW’s third one alongside the South African factory and a production facility in Nigeria. There is also a plan to start vehicle production in Algeria.
Volkswagen Polo Vivo — the first passenger car to be assembled in Kenya in recent times — recorded sales of 104 units nearly a year after it was launched in December 2016.Data from the Kenya Motor Industry Association (KMI) shows that DT Dobie had sold 51 units of the Trendline and 53 units of the Maxx models as of last November.
Orders for the car give it a market share of 1.8 per cent of all new saloon and station wagon sales in the country, according to the KMI data.
DT Dobie priced the Polo Vivo at Sh1.65 million as part of its strategy to attract price-sensitive middle class households who have preferred to buy used cars.Additionally, DT Dobie is offering customers a Ksh. 2.750 per month offer to service their Polo Vivo for 3 years. The motor dealer also added a warranty of three years or 120,000 kilometres but the sales performance shows the market is yet to warm to the car on a significant scale.
More dealers including Urysia (the Peugeot dealer) have started assembling their cars locally to benefit from exemption from a 25 per cent import duty levied on fully built imports
Volkswagen is forging ahead with the regionalization of its worldwide automobile business having inaugurated a vehicle production facility in Kenya in December 2016.
At the inauguration in 2016, Diess underlined Kenya’s key role within the Volkswagen brand’s Africa strategy: “After over 60 years of Volkswagen vehicle production in South and North Africa, I am delighted to now have a further site in Kenya. We will systematically continue to develop our position in the fast-growing African car market.”
The VW Polo Vivo is a great city car. It’s small, which means its easy to park, it’s light, and it has a very nice 1.4L engine mated to a 6 Speed Auto Tiptronic gearbox which is a breath of fresh air when compared to the standard 4 speed auto you get in most Japanese cars. This allows it to have really good fuel consumption, it has a claimed 6.2l/100km (16 Km/l)[ATTACH=full]178707[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]178708[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]178709[/ATTACH]
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