Posted on 07/05/2008 7:49:21 AM PDT by avid
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The U.S. State of Alabama will be the likely home of a new Volkswagen (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) manufacturing plant, beating two other states, German industry newsletter Automobilwoche said on Saturday, citing senior company sources. A VW spokesman said that a decision on the location of the plant had yet to be taken and that Alabama, Tennessee and Michigan remained in the running. A decision is expected by July 21, the spokesman said. Daimler's (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) Mercedes Car Group has had a manufacturing plant in Alabama for years and ThyssenKrupp (TKAG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), an important supplier of automotive steel, is also opening a production facility in the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
No surprise. The state has done a lot to attract the company and frankly....Michigan is totally out of this deal. Its strictly between Tenn and Ala as to who wins.
Hail damages up to 30,000 new VWs
Up to 30,000 brand new Volkswagen cars have been damaged by a storm of hail stones reported to be the size of ping-pong balls.
The cars were parked outside the Volkswagen plant at Emden on Germany's North Sea coast.
A spokesman for the carmaker said that each of the 30,000 vehicles would have to be examined for damage so they could be repaired before being sold.
The spokesman stressed that Volkswagen is insured against hailstorm damage.
There has been speculation that the damage could cost as much as 100m euros ($157m; £79m), but Volkswagen stressed that there could not yet be any cost figures because they had not yet examined all the cars.
The storm happened on Sunday, 22 June.
Nice to see after Boeing cheated Alabama out of the Air Force tanker business they were recently awarded.
they will need lots of bondo.
Wonder if Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or New Jersey were in the running...crickets.
Good for Alabama. I live in Virginia. They never seem to be in the running for any of the car plants.
My Honda Pilot is Alabama born. The first one I had was from Canada and the transmission broke the first day that I had it.
Pennsylvania already got hosed by VW. VW skipped town as soon as the incentives expired.
Companies do this all the time (play one state off against another for the most incentives) and it KILLS existing companies who pay their full share.
Throw in the unions and it’s no wonder US companies are in the toilet.
Unions have been a big drawback in the placing of these foreign auto plants. Right to work states seem to be attracting all of the business but these northern states are so enamored to the unions they refuse to change, and continue to lose business.
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