The event on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the start of car production in Sarajevo was held in Vogosca settlement during the weekend.
The inauguration ceremony was held at Volkswagen Sarajevo in Vogosca, and hosts were Malik Sisic from the company, Mirsad Jasarspahic from the Federation of BiH Economic Chamber and Edin Smajic, the mayor of Vogosca municipality.
During the event, it was announced that an initiative started from the opening of a tech ical museum in this factory, where the vehicles that were produced were exhibited, as well as the cars assembled from 1998 to 2008.
After the defile, the vehicles produced in TAS were exhibited in the square in front of the Cultural and Sport Center in Vogosca. The exhibition lasted two days.
The 50th anniversary celebration was held in the framework of “Vogosca’s Days”.
TAS (Tvornica Automobila Sarajevo) was established in 1970 in cooperation between Volkswagen AG and UNIS, with Volkswagen holding a 49% stake and UNIS 51%. CKD assembly of the Volkswagen Beetle started in Sarajevo in 1972, followed by CKD assembly of the GOLF and Jetta in 1976 and the Caddy in 1982. 1989 was a record year for the Sarajevo plant, with a total of 3,500 employees assembling 37,000 vehicles. Following the war years, the Sarajevo plant was recommissioned in 1998. Since 2001, Volkswagen AG has held a stake of 58% and joint venture Prevent has held a 42% stake in the plant.
SKD assembly of Volkswagen, Skoda and Audi models started in 1998 and continued until 2008. In 2009, the EcoCarrier small electric van was produced in cooperation with the German company EcoCraft.
Plant
The plant of Volkswagen Sarajevo d.o.o. has a total surface area of 157,000 square meters, including 22,300 square meters of production area in use and 36,700 square meters of unused production area.
Production
Volkswagen Sarajevo produces components that are installed on many different engines and models of Group brands. The main products of the plant include stub axle, ring gears, wheel hubs and wheel flanges.
In 2011, the plant produced about 2.4 million stub axles, 1.0 million ring gears and 0.6 million wheel hubs and wheel flanges.
In addition, the plant produces intake pipes, exhaust silencers, swirl chambers, machine parts and reservoir, tubes, currently to customers’ specifications. Sarajevo has also developed container production capabilities and now manufactures a wide range of universal and special containers tailored to customers’ requirements. One of the special containers produced is a push trolley with tilting system developed by the engineers of Volkswagen Sarajevo. A patent for this invention is pending.
Environment
With its “Think Blue Factory” initiative, the Volkswagen brand has set itself clear targets for the environmentally sustainable positioning of all its plants. By 2018, the aim is to reduce the environmental impact of all Volkswagen plants by 25 percent. Specifically, this means 25 % lower energy and water consumption, waste volumes and emissions at all plants.
In January 2009, Volkswagen Sarajevo was one of the first companies in the metal-working industry of Bosnia and Herzegovina to be awarded an environmental permit. This is a mandatory certificate that demonstrates that companies operate in accordance with the environmental regulations laid down by the state. In 2011 Volkswagen Sarajevo received an ISO 14001 Certificate for its environmental management system in November 2012.
