Stallion Group releases new made-in-Nigeria Volkswagen cars

Multinational conglomerate Stallion Group on Tuesday released another set of the first Made-in-Nigeria Volkswagen passenger and commercial vehicles assembled at its brand new plant in Lagos. The company has however revealed plan to commence assembly of Volkswagen’s renowned products including Passat, Jetta, CC and Amarok models.

The development is coming following the October 2013, Federal Government’s National Automotive Industrial Plan (NAIDP) which attempt to stimulate investment in local vehicle production and bolster the economy. A core component of which is to increase import duties for passenger cars from 20% to 70% (35% duty and 35% levy) and to 35% for commercial vehicles.

The Group entered into collaboration with the Volkswagen Group to assemble its vehicles in the country, 23 years after the previous plant was moribund. Recall that Volkswagen started producing its iconic Beetle in Lagos in 1975 through a partnership and later added other cars and light commercial vehicles before ceasing the operations in 1990 amid weak demand and quality woes.

Commenting on the launch, Stallion’s Chairman Sunil Vaswani said: “This is a great moment for Stallion in partnering with a world leading global brand like Volkswagen. We are immensely pleased to bring back the proud legacy of Nigeria automotive industry – the Volkswagen brand that once was indigenously produced at the same premises.”

Disclosing the company’s plans for the Nigerian automotive industry, Vaswani said, “Stallion in committed to investing and expanding its operations in the automotive value chain across multiple global brands and paving the way for Nigeria to establish itself as a regional leader in the automobile eco system.”

He further noted that the company is already assembling Nissan, Hyundai, Ashok-Leyland and IVECO vehicles in Nigeria and has developed a large team of highly skilled human resources following extensive training by specialists from the respective principals.

Meanwhile, Ratz Wolfgang, leader of the Volkswagen Group delegation from Germany disclosed that the commissioning of the new plant marks the revival of the assembly of Volkswagen vehicles in Nigeria.