Volkswagen to shut joint China plant with SAIC Motor

EIKI HAYASHI and TOMOKO WAKASUGI

FRANKFURT, Germany/SHANGHAI — Volkswagen will close a Chinese vehicle assembly plant operated jointly with state-owned SAIC Motor in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, as the German automaker tries reversing a slide by restructuring in the market that accounts for roughly 30% of its deliveries.

The Nanjing plant was built in 2008 and built such gasoline-powered vehicles as the flagship Passat and budget brand Skoda’s Superb. It has a maximum output capacity of 360,000 units a year. But its utilization rate had fallen because of declining sales, and production was later halted.