Tiguan Production May Be Coming To America

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: May 28th, 2011

tiguan production may be coming to america

Volkswagen is thinking about moving production of its Tiguan trucklet to North America. Plans for the move are being discussed by Wolfsburg management, the German magazine Wirtschaftswoche reports.

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Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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8 comments

Bigtruckseriesreview @ Youtube on May 28, 2011

Let the record show. James Earl Jones is the greatest voice actor to ever live.

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HerrKaLeun on May 28, 2011

I assume NA will be the major market anyway and I find it hard to believe they sell so many "Passat" that they utilize their new factory properly.

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- Th009 on May 28, 2011
  
  Currently 90% of the Tiguan production (roughly 250K in 2010) is sold outside of North America -- US sales were only about 20K of that total, and Canada another 5K. The tall and narrow shape referred to by a poster in another thread is well-suited to the narrow streets in Europe city centres, for example. Given the production constraints and the poor profitability here (thanks to the weak US$), it's not surprising that VW hasn't added a TDI model to the North American Tiguan range. Passat sales ... we'll have to wait and see whether VW hit the mark with the new model or not.
  
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- HerrKaLeun on May 28, 2011
  
  @th009 considering all VW sales in NA probably is less then 10% of their global output, the Tiguan is more a NA car for VW than other cars they sell (or attempt to sell) here. As long as yo stay out of UAW areas, the US actually is not a bad manufacturing country, especially with the US government haven given up on stabilizing the dollar entirely. So exporting cars from the US to other countries may be a worthwhile idea. I assumed a car with the thirst of a SUV, but less practicality than a wagon, wouldn't be too popular outside NA (assuming most countries outside NA have expensive fuel)
  
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- Th009 on May 28, 2011
  
  @th009 Yes, I agree that building cars in the NAFTA area can be effective, even for export. And since VW appears to need more capacity, I think it's likely they will build more cars yet. Whether it's in Chattanooga, Puebla or a new site, and what models those might be, is anyone's guess. Tiguan is a good candidate at 20K units in 2010, but VW sold almost 30K Passat CCs (this will likely drop now that the new Passat is out), 30K Golfs/GTIs, and 25K Jetta SportWagons (nee Golf Wagon), so there isn't a single completely obvious model choice.
  
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Roar1 on May 28, 2011

This is a great little truck but to expensive in the U.S. market. There is nothing else like it in it's class that drives like the Tiguan. Better price point and better supply and VW would have a winner here. You see them everywhere in Europe.

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Tommy Boy on May 29, 2011

A TDI Tiguan, with the (light duty) off-road package would be tempting, if priced-right, still not burdened with urea injection AND if VW is making a successful effort to address its (shall we say) "quality challenges."

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- Krhodes1 on May 29, 2011
  
  Why is filling the Urea tank a burden? Is filling the windshield washer tank a burden? You do that a HECK of a lot more often and spend a LOT more money on it than the exhaust additive.
  
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