Features / 24 May 2026 / Warren Hawkins

The 220-year-old railway town in South Africa where every VW Polo in the world is built

The small Eastern Cape town of Kariega, formerly Uitenhage, is not only one of South Africa’s most important manufacturing hubs but also a crucial hub for German automaker VW.

Located approximately 30 kilometres northwest of Gqeberha, it is home to the biggest car factory on the African continent – the VW factory that assembles every Polo sold globally.

Uitenhage was established in 1804 as part of the Dutch colonial expansion into the region and was named in honour of the then Commissioner-General Jacob Uitenhage de Mist.

The town was initially a farming community, and known as the Garden Town, located on the banks of the Swartkops River.

It grew slowly, despite new residents being offered free plots of land to build on, while the development of religious and educational buildings was equally slow.

Following devastating flooding in the early 1820s, more settlers from England moved to Eastern Cape towns, and by the late 1830s, more than 300 houses had been built in Uitenhage.

In 1875, the railway line from Port Elizabeth reached Uitenhage, which led to the building of railway locomotive workshops to serve the Midlands Railway System.

By 1904, when the town’s population was just shy of 1,000, its industrial roots had been laid, as Uitenhage became a sprawling railway town, specialising in the building of coaches and the repair of locomotives.

The town grew steadily over the years, clinging to its industrial roots, culminating in the building of a car manufacturing plant in Uitenhage in 1947.

In 2021, the then Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, approved and gazetted the decision to rename Uitenhage to Kariega.

Today, many of the original buildings from the 1800s still stand in their original form, including the Old Drostdy Museum, built in 1809, the Old Railway Station, built in 1875, and the Cuyler Manor Museum.

The home of the VW Polo

While the first vehicles to roll off the Kariega plant’s production line in 1948 were selected Studebaker and Austin models, VW took over production shortly after.

On 31 August 1951, the first VW – a Beetle – rolled off the production line, and the German automaker has never looked back since.

Over the years, 18 different VW and Audi cars could call the Kariega plant home, including the Audi 100 and A4, as well as the VW Kombi, Mk1 Golf, Citi Golf, and various Polo derivatives.

VW’s local Polo production began in 1996 with the launch of the Polo Classic, a four-door sedan that bridged the gap between the Citi Golf and the Jetta ranges.

In its first year, 5,460 units rolled off the production line, as the Polo Classic quickly became a favourite among South Africans, paving the way for the hatchback version to be introduced in 1998.

To date, the Kariega plant has manufactured four generations of the Polo, with the latest model currently in production since 2021.

In 2024, it became the sole manufacturer and exporter of the Polo, supplying vehicles to 38 countries, and achieving VW’s highest-ever local production record of 167,084 vehicles, of which 131,485 Polos were exported, and 35,599 Polos and Vivos were sold locally.

By the end of 2025, VW had built more than two million Polos in Kariega. Of these, 595,043 were sold in South Africa, while 1,421,960 were exported.

On average, it takes three days and 1,985 sets of hands to build one Polo, with around 1,400 individual parts coming together to complete the vehicle.

In October last year, the plant celebrated its 3 millionth unit built, unsurprisingly, a grey Polo Vivo, while last month it celebrated the 500,00th vehicle built for export, a Crystal Ice Blue Polo destined for the United Kingdom.