China has become our largest and most important market. To satisfy the demands of our customers in the country, we are engaging in a further substantial expansion of our capacities in China together with our Chinese partner FAW Volkswagen.

—Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft

The decision in favor of these two locations was taken together with the joint venture partner FAW. The key site factors were high qualification levels and the infrastructure available. Furthermore, Tianjin is the location of a new production plant for dual-clutch gearboxes (DSG) for Volkswagen in China that is due to be inaugurated at the end of 2014.

Volkswagen has been active on the Chinese market for 30 years and is one of the Western pioneers of the automobile industry in the country. Together with its two joint ventures FAW-Volkswagen and Shanghai-Volkswagen, the Group delivered about 1.51 million vehicles between January and May 2014, representing a rise of 17.7% compared with the corresponding period of the previous year.