The ceremony presented the 30 years’ progress of Shanghai Volkswagen. It was in October 1984 when the signing ceremony of the joint venture contract for Shanghai Volkswagen was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, after which a win-win cooperation development path was found by Volkswagen AG and SAIC Motor. At the ceremony, both shareholders gave high marks on the 30 years’ fruitful development of Shanghai Volkswagen.

Prof. Dr. Winterkorn pointed that, “Shanghai Volkswagen has not only achieved excellent performance on production and marketing, but also made contributions to various fields of the society during these 30 years, including environmental protection, technology, and education and so on.” “With the largest possession volume of domestic car manufactures, Shanghai Volkswagen has achieved outstanding market performance and social benefits in the past three decades,” as Mr. Chen Hong, Chairman of SAIC Motor, stated in his speech.

As one of the earliest car-making joint ventures in China, Shanghai Volkswagen has experienced and witnessed the development of joint car-making in China, and achieved sustainable growth in the fields of production layout, product R&D, quality control, marketing & service and social responsibility, thus forming the excellent systematic competitiveness.

As a result of 30 year’s development, Shanghai Volkswagen has now set up production bases in Nanjing, Yizheng, Ningbo, Urumqi and Changsha with its headquarters stationed in Shanghai Anting, thus laying a solid foundation for the company’s future development. Currently, Shanghai Volkswagen produces and sells over 20 models of brand VW and brand Skoda, setting up a product portfolio that covers market segments of Class A0, Class A, Class B, SUV and MPV.

After 30 years of progress, in the aspect of product R&D, Shanghai Volkswagen has paved a path from technology bring-in to joint research and development, and established an independent research and development system. Shanghai Volkswagen have cultivated a high qualified R & D team and set up a fully functional research and development center of international standards. In 2012, the Research and Development Center of Shanghai Volkswagen was credited the State Accredited Enterprise Technical Center, which was a high recognition of the State to the innovation ability and performance of Shanghai Volkswagen. Shanghai Volkswagen demonstrated its research and development strength through its products. In 2007, Shanghai Volkswagen and Volkswagen Group signed the Joint Declaration of jointly developing a new mid-to-high class car, and as a result of which, the New Passat was successfully launched on the market in 2011.It was the first time for a Chinese car-maker to join in the entire new car development process based on international scope, and the research work of Shanghai Volkswagen has been gradually integrating into the Volkswagen Group global development network. In addition to that, Lavida, the first model independently developed by Shanghai Volkswagen, was well received by the market. Based on the Lavida model, Shanghai Volkswagen, step by step, constructed a Lavida Family matrix, including Lavida, Gran Lavida, Cross Lavida and so forth. In 2013, the sales volume of Lavida Family mounted to 430,000. In 2014, the monthly sales volume of Lavida Family is more than 42,000 up to now.

In term of quality control, Shanghai Volkswagen always applies the concept ‘Quality is the life of Shanghai Volkswagen’ to the whole business chain from product development, manufacture, to sales and after-sales service, and to its suppliers as well. In Oct. 2014, Shanghai Volkswagen won the ‘China Quality Award’ due to the excellent performance in quality control and performance management. Furthermore, Shanghai Volkswagen has won ‘Shanghai Gold Quality Award’ for many times and it won the ‘Shanghai Mayor Quality Award’ in 2011, which is the highest prize with respect to quality review in Shanghai.

In the respect of marketing and service, Shanghai Volkswagen has established over 1,400 sales and service stations of VW brand and Skoda brand, forming the most widespread, intensive and comprehensive car marketing and after-sales service network in domestic market. In the past three quarters, sales of Shanghai Volkswagen were up 15.9 percent to a record 1,348,532 units. In the recent 2014 China Automobile Customer Satisfaction Index, many models of Shanghai Volkswagen have ranked first in respective market segment; and its VW brand crowned among joint-venture brands in aftersales service.

When undergoing rapid development, Shanghai Volkswagen, adhering to the concept of “Producing Cars and Educating People”, has built up a comprehensive human resource system and been awarded with “China Top Employer” eight years in a row, which is certificated by Dutch CRF Institution. In addition, Shanghai Volkswagen has widely participated in CSR courses as well. In 30 years, Shanghai Volkswagen has donated more than 430 million RMB in disaster relief, poverty relief, education, sports, health and other fields. Shanghai Volkswagen has successively won "China Best Corporate Citizen", "Annual Outstanding Enterprise", "The Most Respected Enterprise" and many other awards.

Standing at the new starting point of 30th anniversary, Shanghai Volkswagen will continue progressing with excellence by constantly enriching product lineups, steadily pushing forward the exploration of new products and new technology, continuously strengthening brand building and further improving customer satisfaction. As Mr. Chen Xianzhang, president of Shanghai Volkswagen said，by adhering to the market and focusing on enterprise development strategy, Shanghai Volkswagen will make more brilliant achievements in the future through the endeavor of all employees and with the strong support of the society as a whole.