Audi Considers Stateside Factory
Published: December 6th, 2007
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BMW builds Bimmers in South Carolina. Mercedes-Benz manufactures Mercs in Alabama. Now Audi's considering an American factory. According to Auto Backstage, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler told Auto Motor und Sport that the weak dollar has forced Ingolstadt to consider building a factory in the U.S. Audi is aiming for an eight percent profit margin; an American assembly plant could help them realize that goal. Statler said his employer might produce the Q7 SUV stateside but didn't indicate when they might make the move. If they want to immigrate, there are plenty of southern states which would welcome them with open arms, cheap labor, loads of tax incentives and a hearty "Audi, Y'all!"
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Tax and other incentives are more plentiful for new greenfield auto plants and there are no CAW or UAW successor rights issues.
"Not to mention there are loads of dead car plants scattered around the United States due to Ford and GM shutting down, which also means there are experienced workforces, which will save time (and money) training." -If you owned a car company, would you want the cast offs from GM and Ford? That's just askin fer union trouble right from the start! -I certainly would not make the Q7 ! Maybe the A3, Q5, or A4 all of which would sell here, but not the Q7.
One bizarre side effect of the UAW's grip on Detroit is that it makes lots of sense for foreign companies to build state of the art factories in the US, and it makes no sense for the indigenous auto makers to do so. Weird, isn't it? Now if they really want to make hay then VW Group should buy Volvo off Ford and then build a bigger US factory to produce both Audis and Volvos. Volvo is getting killed financially by having the US as it's largest single market while it's manufacturing expenses are in Kronas and Euros.
That Audi, Ya'll thing is particularly funny to me. My french teacher was from Kenya. He told a story about how he learned very formal english as a child, but when he got to our school, everyone said, "Audi". He just couldn't get the "H".