A million visitors a year are expected to visit Autostadt, a £216m car theme park at Wolfsburg, the Volkswagen Group's huge site in northern Germany.

Autostadt is a mix of Volkswagen product promotion, motor history displays and entertainment. It was completed to tie in with the Expo 2000 World Exhibition 45 miles away in Hanover.

The site is dominated by two 20-storey steel and glass towers holding 400 cars each, and four more are planned. Volkswagen customers who have placed orders through franchised dealers will be able to collect cars from a new customer centre at Autostadt, fed by stocks from the two towers.

Pavilions on the site exhibit products from Volkswagen's stable of marques including one for Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Volkswagen acquired the Bentley marque and is building Rolls-Royces for BMW until it assumes control of the brand in 2003.