South Africa

The small town in the Eastern Cape making every VW Polo in the world

Declan Thompson • 14 June 2026

The industrial town of Kariega in the Eastern Cape is home to one of the largest and most productive vehicle manufacturing facilities on the African continent.

The town is situated approximately 38 km north-west of Gqeberha, with which it forms part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality.

Founded on 25 April 1804, the town was originally named Uitenhage after the then Dutch Cape Colony Commissioner-General Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist.

It is the second-oldest town in the Eastern Cape province, only behind Graaff-Reinet, which was founded 18 years earlier in 1786.

Uitenhage was initially formed as a small farming community, but over time grew into one of South Africa’s most important commercial and industrial areas.

The town was officially renamed to Kariega in 2021, reportedly after the ancestral name of the Swartkops River, which flows through the town.

It has also been nicknamed the ‘Garden Town’, due to its climate and location on the foothills of the Winterhoek Mountains, which allow vegetation to flourish.

Kariega’s official flower is the strelitzia, also known as the bird-of-paradise flower or the crane flower in South Africa, which is a common sight throughout the town.

The town is home to the Uitenhage Historical Museum, itself consisting of three separate sites which were integral to the town’s history.

This includes the Drostdy Museum, Cuyler Manor, and the Old Railway Station Museum, which was built in 1875 and is one of South Africa’s oldest railway stations.

South Africa’s oldest all-boys English school, Muir College, is also located in Kariega and first opened its doors in 1822, accommodating children from grades 4 through 12.

It is also located just 45 km away from the Addo Elephant National Park, the third-largest national park in South Africa, spanning approximately 1,640 km².

The home of Volkswagen in South Africa

In more recent years, Kariega has become somewhat famous as the headquarters for Volkswagen’s South African operations.

The German automobile manufacturer established itself in South Africa in 1946, with the country’s first VW Beetle built in 1951 at its assembly plant in what is now Kariega.

Since then, the town has become a hub for the production of Volkswagen vehicles, being officially dubbed by the company as the “home of Polo” in 2024.

Volkswagen began production of the Polo at its Kariega plant in 1996, 21 years after the model was first introduced in the company’s home country of Germany.

Over the last 30 years, more than 2 million Polos have been built at the plant in Kariega, with around 1 million of these being of the car’s current generation.

Of the 4.8 million vehicles which have been produced at Kariega in its 75 years of operation, the current generation Polo accounts for nearly 21%, and 48% of all Polos built at the plant.

This facility is currently the only manufacturer of the Polo globally, as well as the sole exporter of the car to 38 markets across Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions since July 2024.

Approximately 86% of the current generation Polos constructed at Kariega were for export, while the remaining 14% were made for the local market.

Germany and the United Kingdom represent the two biggest markets for Polos built in South Africa, importing 124,711 and 113,171 units of the car between 2020 and 2026, respectively.

The Polo has ranked as the most exported car from South Africa for seven years straight, with a record 131,487 units being exported in 2024 alone.

Locally, the Polo Vivo has consistently ranked as the best-selling passenger vehicle in South Africa every year since its introduction in 2010.

The Kariega plant is also the sole manufacturer of the Polo GTI in the world, the high-performance “hot hatch” variant of the Polo.

Travellers to Kariega can also visit the AutoPavilion, an automotive museum situated on-site at the VW assembly plant, to learn about the history of the company’s South African operations.