Building Boom At Volkswagen: Ten More Plants

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

No overcapacity problems at Volkswagen – at least not globally, and especially not in China. “Within the coming years, we will build at least ten more plants – seven of those in China,” Volkswagen chief Martin Winterkorn said today in Wolfsburg, with Automobilwoche taking notes. By 2016, Volkswagen will have capacity for more than four million units in China, that’s about half of VW’s current worldwide output.

This year, Volkswagen will start production in Urumqi, Foshan and Ningbo. Two new component plants will open this year in Changchun. In 2014, the Tianjin transmission plant will follow. In addition, the supervisory board approved and additional Chinese plant for 300,000 units.

More factories go up in India (Scania), Russia, (MAN/ St. Petersburg, VW/Kaluga), and Mexico (Audi/ San Jose Chiapa.) Volkswagen has more than 100 plants worldwide, twelve of those in China.

Volkswagen wants to off-set a tanking European market by building cars in more promising regions. Assuming that Volkswagen can sell all those cars, world domination could be achieved within the decade.

Bertel Schmitt
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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  • NN NN on Mar 14, 2013

    100 plants worldwide, 12 in China, only 1 in the USA. For it's size, VW doesn't invest much at all in the US. Think of Toyota's investment here vs. VW. Maybe VW calculates that most US consumers will always place long term reliability/durability at high importance, and they can't beat Toyota at that. Nobody in China has yet owned cars long enough to know/care about long term durability. With VW owning the best selling car rankings in China, world domination for them will probably come very, very soon.

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    • NormSV650 NormSV650 on Mar 15, 2013

      "...Toyoda said. Toyota still has much to learn from GM, a company that was already No. 1 when Toyota was barely born." No more new plant announcements until 2016. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130307/AUTO0104/303070396/1148/auto01/Toyota-chief-says-new-auto-plants-put-hold-stresses-safe-growth

  • Rnc Rnc on Mar 14, 2013

    This is a good time to watch the auto industry (if enjoy studying business), basically there are four that are known will make it, Toyota, VW, Ford, and Nissan-Renault (and I am talking the mainstream makers, lets assume that BMW and Mercedes are fine), for the remainder its sort of becoming a game of who will die first and who gets the carcass. GM despite it's rinse off, still has the albatross of a million retirees to support and Opel) and Honda, which has structural cost issues, amplified by currency issues since they are export dependent (and I'm sure lots and lots of people will scream over that one, but I see thier beautiful products of the 90's and thier products now, theres costs coming out somewhere, reputation only lasts so long) are the next two most likely to make it if they can deal with the issues they face. For the rest...(Think Fiat will end up spinning everything besides the European part of the Fiat Carmaking operations to the Fiat Industrial side and leave the other to die if need be or get the italian unions to finally make some concessions, think the brilliance of taking Chryco becomes more and more apparent month by month).

  • Waterview Waterview on Mar 14, 2013

    +1 Goacom Glad to know there's at least one out there . . . . .

  • Schmitt trigger Schmitt trigger on Mar 14, 2013

    My theory on how VW keeps on selling vehicles worldwide (and of course, this theory could be completely wrong!) All of the countries that I've travelled to and have seen a VW commercial, they strongly emphasize their German-ness. From the US "Das Auto" to other places "the power of German engineering", or "German technology". Germany, as a country, has a well-deserved reputation with technical prowess, sterling engineering, and quality manufacturing. Of course, the B&B here know that this is not 100% true. But VW very cleverly exploits this "common knowledge".

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    • Summicron Summicron on Mar 14, 2013

      @RobertRyan "One lung foreign putt-putt" To quote Dave Berg of Mad Magazine.

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