Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor Gary van Niekerk welcomed the strong statement of intent by Volkswagen Group Africa that its African headquarters will remain in Kariega.<\/p>\n
\u201cKariega (formerly Uitenhage) has been synonymous with the Volkswagen South Africa brand since its establishment in 1946 and its facilities still represents the largest investment in South Africa by a German automotive company.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are immensely proud of this legacy. In addition, the automotive giant\u2019s intent to increase its African footprint from Kariega is excellent news for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe announcement by the Volkswagen Group Africa Managing Director Martina Biene this week, augers well for the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality\u2019s plans to increase its market share in the automotive sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as we are working on strategies to diversify our economy by developing other sectors, we need to cement our position as the \u201cDetroit of South Africa\u201d and further improve our output.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe news that Volkswagen Group Africa will be producing its first fully electric vehicle, the ID.4 this year as well as the new T-cross, Tiguan and Touareg models, augurs well for our economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident that the electrical vehicle will do well as market trends indicate that the demand for environmentally friendly transportation is growing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like to repay this vote of confidence in our city by improving our infrastructure and building a region where businesses can thrive and do business seamlessly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to wish them well with their plans to become a carbon neutral company by 2030 and look forward to continue our good working relations with the Volkswagen Africa Group,\u201d Mayor Van Niekerk said.<\/p>\n
Editor:<\/strong> Come on Gary Old Boy – lets rather aim for the ‘Detroit of Africa’ and, just to confirm we are talking about the Detroit of old and NOT present day Detroit!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor Gary van Niekerk welcomed the strong statement of intent by Volkswagen Group Africa that its African headquarters will remain in Kariega. \u201cKariega (formerly Uitenhage) has been synonymous with the Volkswagen South Africa brand since its establishment in 1946 and its facilities still represents the largest investment in South Africa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[540],"tags":[564],"class_list":["post-5493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business-news","tag-nmbm","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mype.co.za\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mype.co.za\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mype.co.za\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mype.co.za\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mype.co.za\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mype.co.za\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5494,"href":"https:\/\/mype.co.za\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493\/revisions\/5494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mype.co.za\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mype.co.za\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mype.co.za\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}