Poznań, 20.05.2015 – Poznań, 20 May 2015 - today at 4:15 pm, workers at the Volkswagen Poznań factory said goodbye to the last VW Caddy 3. Its successor is the Caddy 4, available in Polish showrooms beginning this July. The VW Caddy 3 model has been produced in Poznań for 12 years. The last car is numbered 1,578,383. The Poznań factory is the only one in the world in which the VW Caddy is manufactured.

The departing Caddy 3 had its world premiere on 16 October 2003 during the International Commercial Vehicle Show in Amsterdam.

 “Thanks to the good reception and unflagging interest it received, over all those years it became an important driving force in the changes and development at the Poznań plant. Over the last 12 years, the company has transformed from a car assembly plant to a complete factory which today employs more than 7,000 people and is the biggest employer in Greater Poland,” said Jens Ocksen, President of the Management Board and Member of the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Brand Management.

With more investments by the concern, in the near future a further 900 people will find work in Poznań-Antoninek, and a further 3,000 jobs will be created in the newly-arising Volkswagen factory in Września, where beginning in the second half of 2016 the new generation of the VW Crafter model will be made.

The VW Caddy model is today the flagship product of the Poznań factory, comprising 80% of production there. Apart from the Caddy, various body versions of the VW Transporter are also made in Antoninek, and total production amounts to 175,000 cars.

History of the model

The Volkswagen Caddy is a light commercial vehicle. The first generation of the model was based on technological solutions from the VW Golf, and was produced from 1979 to 1993 in the United States. On the American market it was called the Rabbit, whereas in Europe the Caddy – which would be translated in German as “Golfjunge” and in Polish as “noszący kije golfowe”. The VW Caddy was also produced for the European market by the Volkswagen subsidiary TAS in Sarajevo.

By introducing the first-generation Caddy to the market, the VW concern filled a gap between the Passat estate wagon version and the VW Transporter. The second-generation Caddy was created by the Spanish brand Seat, and was based on solutions used in the Polo model. It was manufactured in the factory in Martorell.

“2003 saw the beginning of a stage in the history of the Caddy which is especially close and well-known to us – production of the third generation of the model commenced in our factory. Mass production lasted from 12 November 2003 to today, that is 20 May 2015. At the same time, bearing number 1,578,384, the first mass-produced Caddy 4 came off the production line; it also had its premiere in Poznań this February,” said Dietmar Mnich, Director of the Poznań Plant.

The new Caddy will be available in showrooms from July 2015, although interested customers can already place orders for the new model as of today.