Posted on Thursday 24 April 2008
Updated: Volkswagen’s U.S. chief Stefan Jacoby has confirmed the carmaker is looking at securing a location in either Michigan, Alabama or Tennessee for its new North American plant and expects a final decision to be made by the middle of the year. Key considerations for the decision include cost, logistics and the readiness of the site.
Speaking with the Detroit Free Press, Jacoby said VW hopes to sell up to 800,000 vehicles in the U.S. by 2018 and the plant would need to build at least 200,000 vehicles a year to remain feasible. Production is scheduled to start in 2011 or 2012.
Original: The final decision on the location of Volkswagen’s North American plant is still several months away but we can confirm executives have ruled out the option of building the new facility in either Mexico or Canada. Instead, the new plant will be built in the U.S. and the most likely locations at the moment are Georgia and South Carolina.
A top VW official has told Automotive News Europe that there are only a few options left in discussion and all of these involve the U.S. He also revealed that executives will discuss the issue at this week’s annual general meeting to help speed up the decision making process. VW is hopeful production at the plant will start by 2011 at the latest.
The source also revealed the new plant will initially be used to build a number of existing VW and Audi models, however it will eventually produce several all-new models including a pair of sedans that will be unique to the North American market.
In addition to the car plant, VW may also build an engine and transmission plant to support the new vehicle production line. According to the Financial Times Deutschland, an engine plant could be viable if Volkswagen manages to grow sales in North America to around 1m units, as planned. Last year combined sales for Audi and VW in North America stood at just 565,000 units.
wow… a foreign brand talking about setting up shop in michigan. now THAT is news. I’d like to see them straight up buy one of the shut down plants in detroit, and retool it. it’d be running in 12 months. and would help detroit out a little.
I remember reading about 2 years ago that State Reps in Tennessee were discussing with car manufacturers (both foreign and domestic) about how ready the Memphis area is to accomodate a car manufacturer. This went as far as initial “prep” of a site near rail and interstate access. I wonder if that is the site in Tennessee being considered. The news did not have any more information, local indictments of some polititians eclipsed this topic and I forgot to follow the story.