VW to Announce US Factory Location on July 8

The deadline is drawing near for Volkswagen in its decision to build

its next

plant in North America. According to Automotive News and Auto

Motor und Sport, the German giant will make the final announcement on

July 8, 2008. The board of directors will then give the plan one last

look over before giving it the green light, one week later. Volkswagen

is reportedly choosing between two states - Tennessee and Alabama,

both of which have become recent hotspots for building cars.

The

$788 m production plant will create approximately 2,000 new jobs and

will be state of the art, featuring flexible manufacturing to

allow different models to be built on the same assembly line.

Seeing as the most popular VW models sold in North America are built

using similar architectures, it wouldn't be surprising if VW opted to

build the Tiguan and Passat on this side

of the Atlantic at the new

facility. In addition, it's pretty certain that Audi would engage in

building vehicles at the new US plant as well; its main German rivals,

BMW and Mercedes-Benz, have built cars in North America for years.

This

factory will play a key component in Volkswagen's global expansion

plan. The factory could be operational and producing cars as early as

2011, and it could be producing as many as 300,000 units per year seven

years later. Building cars in North America would allow VW to price its

cars more attractively, reduce shipping times and reduce importation

taxes.