FAW Volkswagen's new production site in Foshan, Guangdong will begin operation in August, media reported. The announcement was made by FAW-VW Board Chairman and President An Tiecheng, who said that assembly and testing of production equipment at the site has already begun.

The Foshan site will boast an annual production capacity of 360,000 vehicles. The site possesses stamping, welding, painting and general assembly facilities, as well as independent quality control, IT and logistics systems.

It is unclear what the first vehicle to be produced at the site will be, though Mr. An confirmed that an Audis will begin to be manufactured there before the end of 2013. According to a source from the joint venture, the Foshan factory will manufacture one VW model and two Audi models: the seventh generation Golf as well as hatchback and sedan versions of the Audi A3. Interestingly, all of the above models are compacts. According to the above source, the factory will focus specifically on producing high-quality compact cars.

Mr. An explains the importance of the production site for FAW-VW. The site's 360,000 vehicles, combined with the 900,000 vehicles produced at FAW-VW's Changchun factory and 540,000 produced at its Chengdu factory, will help the JV's total annual production capacity reach 1.8 million vehicles.

Mr. An is very proud of the achievements made by the JV. "Despite the various factors [in the automobile market] this year, FAW-VW has managed to acheive very successful results, [including] leading the market for five continuous months," Mr. An stated, adding that the expansions to production capacity will further help the JV develop.

FAW-VW has managed to sell over 1.3 million vehicles since the beginning of the year, with VW models accounting for one million of those sales. Mr. An revealed that FAW-VW's sales target for next year will be set at 1.5 million vehicles.