Intro: The joint venture between the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, Bank of China and Volkswagen was established in 1984. Since the beginning of the 1970s there were rumours that Volkswagen would start a Chinese factory. In 1983 the Shanghai Auto Works trial-assembled the Volkswagen Passat B2 3-volume saloon as the Shanghai-Volkswagen Santana. It was then decided that this should be the car to be produced by the joint venture. This car soon proved to be very successful in China. Production capacity was even raised to 250.000 units per year by the end of 1999. The Santana Variant, the estate version, was introduced in 1986, but production started years later, in 1991. Together with Volkswagen do Brasil, SVW developed a new Santana, which came of the line in 1994. The Chinese version had a slightly longer wheelbase than the Brazilian version, to give extra legroom. This was the Santana 2000, produced with a 1781 cc fuel-injection engine.
In 1999 the Volkswagen Passat B5 was introduced as Shanghai Passat SVW 7183 with a 9 cm longer wheelbase than the German version. The Polo A04 rolled off the assembly line in August 2001. Mass production began in March 2002.
Production in 2003: Gol: 11025, Santana: 124034, Santana 2000: 89059, Passat: 123954, Polo: 57180.
In 2004 the Santana 2000 was replaced by the Santana 3000, but the original Santana is still going strong.
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